Principled labour law: U.S. labour law through a Latin American method, by Sergio Gamonal C. and César F. Rosado Marzán

In recent years Latin American countries have enacted sweeping privatisation measures and major trade, financial and tax reforms, but they have moved much more slowly to reform their pension systems and labour laws. This pattern of reform partly reflects differences in the intensity of organised labour's opposition to the reforms. Organised labour has undertaken greater efforts to block labour law reforms and, to a lesser extent, pension reforms, because these measures impose severe losses on more unions than other types of reforms. These greater efforts, moreover, have had significant effects on policy outcomes. The article shows how organised labour reacted quite differently to various types of market-oriented reforms in Argentina and Mexico in the 1990s, and describes how the reaction of the unions helped shape the fate of the reform proposals.

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Puebla: The Start of a Path Towards a More Audacious and Prophetic Theology in Latin America

Theologica Xaveriana ◽

10.11144/javeriana.tx71.psptapt ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 71 ◽

Author(s):

Víctor Martínez Morales, S. J.

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Latin American ◽

Human Condition ◽

Christian Faith ◽

American People ◽

Human Beings ◽

New Approaches ◽

The Face ◽

American Method ◽

The Church

40 years ago, the Latin American bishops convened in Puebla to reflect upon and point towards new pastoral horizons and theological construction. This article conveys the dynamism, strength, and vigor of the message emanating from that meeting. Puebla gave clues of a new theology that, adhering to the Latin American method, can respond to the problems that question us with unprecedented vigor and invite us to envision new routes, fields of new approaches, and ways yet unpaved. The message arising from Puebla continues to be current. It opens up hope of new theological construction seeking to give a new dimension to its task, understand God’s action in history differently, as well as the human condition and its relation to nature. We live in a plural context, broad and open to the construction of theologies able to offer new interpretations of God’s revelation and action, a propitious moment to rethink theological efforts, regarding the challenges presented by Puebla. In this horizon, theological work should be understood from the experience of faith and fundamental openness of the being to God’s creative and salvific action, in the gratuity of filiation in the Son and not as a mere intellective obligation of the Christian faith. Puebla presents, not only for the Latin American people, but for the church in general, a reflection in which we are constantly reminded that human beings can transform situations of injustice into opportunities for liberation, forgiveness and mercy. It is up to every Christian to undertake a path of trustful commitment, marked by a spirit of solidarity and responsibility towards his or her neighbour. In this way one can make known the face of God of whom Puebla speaks and who cries out for justice.

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Introduction

Principled Labor Law ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190052669.003.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-30

Author(s):

Gamonal C. Sergio ◽

César F. Rosado Marzán

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Latin American ◽

Labor Law ◽

The United States ◽

Labor Standards ◽

Labor Protection ◽

Freedom Of Association ◽

International Labor Standards ◽

International Labor ◽

American Method

This chapter introduces the book’s main goal: to provide a “principled labor law” method to decide hard cases. It describes principled labor law as a Latin American method embedded in the principles of protection, primacy of reality, nonwaiver, and continuity. It argues that principled labor law can be useful even in the least likely case of labor protection, the United States, and explains how, if useful for the United States, it is likely helpful for other jurisdictions. It describes how principled labor law complements perspectives favoring freedom of association—the so-called labor constitution—but opposes views attempting to eviscerate the idea of protecting weaker parties from contemporary law, or those that envision labor law as merely a regulatory endeavor. It also describes how principled labor law shares similarities with the purposive perspective of Guy Davidov, but also contrasts with that perspective, to the extent principled labor law is mostly concerned, and is, in fact, “rulified” in favor of labor protection. It explains that principled labor law seems particularly needed to evade problems of legal endogeneity. The chapter concludes by arguing that the book provides a countercultural narrative for labor law in the United States that is also consonant with international labor standards and, as such, better brings U.S. labor law into the mainstream. Principled labor law may be less countercultural in other countries, but may also help there to renew jurisdictional commitments in favor of labor protection.

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