Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Bargaining For Abolition, Zohra Ahmed Jan 2022

Bargaining For Abolition, Zohra Ahmed

Scholarly Works

What if instead of seeing criminal court as an institution driven by the operation of rules, we saw it as a workplace where people labor to criminalize those with the misfortune to be prosecuted? I offer three different ways to think about labor in criminal court: (1) labor as a source of sociological value, (2) labor as an input that generates certain measurable outcomes, and (3) labor as a vehicle to advance abolitionist reforms. First, through their quotidian activities, criminal courts’ workers enact a practical philosophy that communicates lessons about who and how we value each other. Drawing on ethnographic …


Getting Paid In The Naked Economy, Meredith R. Miller Jan 2015

Getting Paid In The Naked Economy, Meredith R. Miller

Scholarly Works

“It’s the end of work as we know it,” reports consulting firm Accenture in a paper about the “rise of the extended workforce.” (Gartside, Silverstone, Farley & Cantrell, Trends Reshaping the Future of HR: The Rise of the Extended Workforce, at 3 (Accenture 2013). The report predicts that, “[i]n the future, organizations’ competitive success will hinge on...workers who aren’t employees at all.” The legal nature of employment is changing and has been changing for quite some time; fewer and fewer workers are “employees.”

It is not new or novel to recognize that, from a legal perspective, there are many benefits …


Teaching Problem-Solving And Preventive Law Skills Through International Labour And Employment Law, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2009

Teaching Problem-Solving And Preventive Law Skills Through International Labour And Employment Law, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

This essay describes how problem-solving and preventive law principles apply in the teaching of international labor and employment law. This is because the subject itself crosses disciplinary and geographical boundaries. Students are taught about the importance of the lawyer's role as a counselor, rather than simply a litigator, which is at the center of the model of the lawyer as a problem solver.


Reproducing Gender On Law School Faculties, Ann C. Mcginley Jan 2009

Reproducing Gender On Law School Faculties, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This article demonstrates that there is a gender divide on law school faculties. Women work in inferior sex-segregated jobs and teach a disproportionate percentage of female-identified courses. More than 80% of law school deans are men. Men teach the more prestigious male-identified courses. Women suffer from differential expectations from colleagues and students and often bear the brunt of their colleagues' bullying behaviors at work. Using masculinities studies and other social science research to identify gendered structures, practices, and behaviors that harm women law professors, this article provides a theoretical framework to explain why women in the legal academy do not …


Toward Fundamental Change For The Protection Of Low-Wage Workers: The “Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights" Debate In The Obama Era, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2009

Toward Fundamental Change For The Protection Of Low-Wage Workers: The “Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights" Debate In The Obama Era, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

In order to avoid the pendulum swings of politics, advocates must argue for more fundamental norms for the protection of labor rights. Statutory protections, while important, will not provide long-lasting change toward establishing workers' rights as fundamental under constitutional and international law principles. Workers' rights must be seen as fundamental to the functioning of a democratic society, rather than as the special interest agenda of unions or plaintiffs' attorneys. This can be done through more advocacy for a minimum set of workers' rights as human rights, including the right to organize labor unions and the right to be free from …


Labor’S Fragile Freedom Of Association Post-9/11, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2006

Labor’S Fragile Freedom Of Association Post-9/11, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

The fragility of civil liberties in the United States became evident after the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11). Labor's freedom of association, which is the right to form unions, bargain collectively, and engage in concerted activities, is one of the civil liberties at risk in the post-9/11 period. This Article focuses specifically on post-9/11 limitations of labor's freedom of association conducted by the executive branch and the Congress, and the ways that the courts have adjudicated labor rights in the post-9/11 era. Domestic labor law and constitutional rights alone, however, will not stop the collision of security and …


Labor As Property: Guestworkers, International Trade, And The Democracy Deficit, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2006

Labor As Property: Guestworkers, International Trade, And The Democracy Deficit, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

In the 1914 Clayton Act, Congress declared: "The labor of a human being is not a commodity or an article of commerce." The practical reason for this section of the Clayton Act was to exempt collusion in labor negotiations from antitrust liability. The law also gave effect to the rejection of the commodification of human labor. Since the passage of the Clayton Act, developments in law and society have chipped away at the law's symbolic anti-commodification message. This paper examines the commodification of labor in the international trade and guestworker debates. Historically, the concept of "comparative advantage" in international trade …


If The Train Should Jump The Track ...: Divergent Interpretations Of State And Federal Employment Discrimination Statutes, Alex B. Long Jan 2006

If The Train Should Jump The Track ...: Divergent Interpretations Of State And Federal Employment Discrimination Statutes, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

As interpretational issues surrounding federal employment discrimination statutes have become more complex and controversial, there have arisen more opportunities for parallel state anti-discrimination law to jump the track and take alternative courses. Not surprisingly, when dealing with their own parallel state statutes, a number of state appellate courts in recent years have chosen this course of action. Even where state and federal employment discrimination have not yet taken different paths, the potential for such divergent interpretations of state and federal anti-discrimination law has increased in recent years to the point where we may enter an era not unlike that of …


Masculinities At Work, Ann C. Mcginley Jan 2004

Masculinities At Work, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on the study of masculinities, a body of theoretical and empirical work by sociologists, feminist theorists and organization management theorists. This work, much of which employment law scholars have ignored, studies the role of masculinities, which are often invisible, in creating structural barriers to the advancement of many women and some men at work. Masculinities comprise both a structure that reinforces the superiority of men over women and a series of practices, associated with masculine behavior, performed by men or women, that aid men to maintain their superior position over women. In their less visible form, masculinities …


Transnationalism As A Social Movement Strategy: Institutions, Actors And International Labor Standards, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2003

Transnationalism As A Social Movement Strategy: Institutions, Actors And International Labor Standards, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

In the context of changing global realities, the UC Davis Journal of International Law & Policy (“JILP”) held its March 2003 Symposium, “Workers and International Economic Institutions: Challenges and Possibilities in a Global Economy.” The conference attracted a diverse array of academics, policymakers, and community activists. The participants examined the problems and possibilities that government, business, and nonprofits present for creating and maintaining labor standards in the global economy. In this introduction, the author will place each of the Symposium contributions into a framework of the choices that institutions and actors must make in deciding the best course for raising …


Ghost Workers In An Interconnected World: Going Beyond The Dichotomies Of Domestic Immigration And Labor Laws, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2003

Ghost Workers In An Interconnected World: Going Beyond The Dichotomies Of Domestic Immigration And Labor Laws, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

Beginning with the September 11, 2001 ("9/11") terrorist attacks, the labor movement's plans to organize immigrant workers and achieve immigration reform have met serious challenges. After 9/11, the political climate surrounding immigrants put the AFL - CIO's hopes for legislative reform on hold, because of socially perceived connections between immigrants and terrorism. Then, in a March 2002 decision titled Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, the U.S. Supreme Court held that undocumented immigrant workers could not collect back pay under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when their rights to join unions are violated. According to the Court, back …


Across The Borders: Immigrant Status And Identity In Law And Latcrit Theory, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2003

Across The Borders: Immigrant Status And Identity In Law And Latcrit Theory, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

Immigrants make up a large and increasing portion of the American community. The recent census found an unprecedented number of immigrants within the United States. Immigrants, however, have fewer legal protections than almost any other individuals within our borders. This lack of protection is especially disconcerting given that immigrants are often the most subordinated members of our communities. Particularly after the events of September 11, 2001, the rights and protections available to immigrants—whether they are documented or not—are tenuous. As LatCrit scholars have pointed out, immigration law is intensely racialized, and yet other bodies of law, such as civil rights …


New Voices At Work: Race And Gender Identity Caucuses In The U.S. Labor Movement, Ruben J. Garcia Jan 2002

New Voices At Work: Race And Gender Identity Caucuses In The U.S. Labor Movement, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

Recently, labor law scholars have examined the emergence of "identity caucuses," in unions and in nonunion workplaces. Some scholars have pointed to identity caucuses as a source of division in unions, while others have pointed to them as alternatives to traditional unions. The author argues that race and gender caucuses in unions are not a source of division in the labor movement today, nor are they a viable alternative to traditional unions. In spite of the National Labor Relations Act's subordination of minority rights to majority rule, the author determines that women and people of color in union-based identity caucuses …


Good Faith: Balancing The Right To Manage With The Right To Represent, Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus Apr 2001

Good Faith: Balancing The Right To Manage With The Right To Represent, Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.