Law Commons^™

Race, Gender, And Work/Family Policy, Nancy Dowd

Nancy Dowd

Family leave is not an end in itself, but rather is part of a much bigger picture: work/family policy. The goal of work/family policy is to achieve a good society by supporting families. Ideally, families enable children to develop to their fullest capacity and to contribute to their communities and society. Public rhetoric in the United States has always strongly supported families. Our policies, however, have not. In the area of work/family policy, the United States continues to lag behind every other advanced industrialized country, as well as many developing countries, in the degree to which we provide affirmative support …

Conditioning Expectations: The Protection Of The Employment Bond In German And American Law, Thomas Kohler, Michael Kittner

Thomas C. Kohler

According to many observers, one of the critical factors accounting for the unprecedented economic growth that the United States enjoyed during the past decade is a regulatory regime that places few restrictions on an employer's ability to shed unwanted employees. Similarly, the slower economic growth that Germany and Europe experienced during this period often is attributed to elaborate employment protection schemes that restrict the ability of employers to discharge undesired workers. These protections are blamed for making countries like Germany less attractive places for foreign investment. This piece examines in comparative perspective the restrictions the American and German regulatory schemes …

Autonomy And Personhood: The Implications For Labor And Employment Law, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

The Overlooked Middle, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

In this Article, the author argues that significant elements concerning the discussion of labor law reform have been overlooked and that the steady decline of unions is not in fact an isolated occurrence. It is instead part of a much broader and deeply troubling trend, which has affected every mediating group in our society. However, our blinkered insistence on treating the deterioration of autonomous employee associations as a solitary phenomenon has precluded us from comprehending either the complexity of its causes or the full extent of its implications.

The author posits, therefore, that there is a pronounced tendency to overlook …