Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Nestlé V. Doe: A Death Knell To Corporate Human Rights Accountability?, Phillip Ayers

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court in Nestlé v. Doe held that foreign plaintiffs who claimed to be victims of overseas tortious conduct by corporate defendants had no jurisdiction to sue in federal courts using the Alien Tort Statute. This Comment looks at the history of the Alien Tort Statute, from its inspiration, long dormancy, and recent reinvigoration beginning in the 1980s. The Comment then explores the background of Nestlé and its issues with child slavery in its cocoa supply chain. From there, the Comment analyzes the Nestlé v. Doe decision, and posits an alternative outcome. Finally, this Comment looks for a new …

Forecasting Human Rights Legacies: On Practices And Principles, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

Among the many human rights and corruption concerns surrounding the Qatar 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup, two ultimately rose to the fore: labor and LGBTQ rights. A careful look at Qatar’s response to these issues reveals a sharp and provocative contrast. Though the World Cup organizers and the Qatari Government generally resisted Western criticism of its LGBTQ laws and practices, both bodies adopted systemic labor reforms. To the extent these reforms remain in place several years after the event, they can be said to constitute a human rights legacy. This Article explores one angle from which to understand this contrast. …

Beyond The Business Case: Moving From Transactional To Transformational Inclusion, Jamillah Bowman Williams

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While workplace diversity is a hot topic, the extent to which the diversity management movement has effectively improved intergroup relations and reduced racial inequality remains unclear. Despite large investments in diversity and inclusion training and other company wide initiatives, historically excluded groups remain vastly underrepresented in leadership and the most lucrative careers, such as finance, law, and technology. This calls the efficacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts into question, particularly with respect to reducing racial inequality in the workplace.

This Article explains why it is time for organizational leaders to move beyond the transactional case for diversity and …

Reclaiming Rights: Combatting Employee-Sided Labor & Employment Legal Accessibility Issues For The New Working Class Through Unionization, Evan Dandrea

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Way Forward: A Review Of Virginia's 2023 Regular General Assembly Session, Benjamin Raab, Mariam Rasooli

Law Student Publications

The 2023 General Assembly Session can best be defined by the success of bipartisanship. In an era of heightened polarization, Virginia legislators were able to meet across the aisle on a number of relevant issues. This article will provide a summary of key bills that were passed during the 2023 Regular and Special Sessions. The other articles within this issue touch upon the following topics: the Virginia Commission on School Construction and Modernization, family law, and the opioid and addiction crises. This article summarizes legislation passed with bipartisan support in the areas of: drugs, mental healthcare, labor and commerce, public …

Racism Pays: How Racial Exploitation Gets Innovation Off The Ground, Daria Roithmayr

Publications

Recent work on the history of capitalism documents the key role that racial exploitation played in the launch of the global cotton economy and the construction of the transcontinental railroad. But racial exploitation is not a thing of the past. Drawing on three case studies, this Paper argues that some of our most celebrated innovations in the digital economy have gotten off the ground by racially exploiting workers of color, paying them less than the marginal revenue product of their labor for their essential contributions. Innovators like Apple and Uber have been able to racially exploit workers of color because …

Comment: Unpaid Internships And The Rural-Urban Divide, Susan D. Carle

Washington and Lee Law Review

In this Comment, I first note how much the existing literature on unpaid internships under the FLSA focuses on urban contexts. Next, I briefly sketch some of the literature on the rural-urban divide, a topic I argue needs much more analysis from legal scholars in coming years. Third, I show how Morris’s work brings together these two literatures, which to this point have not been in conversation with each other. Finally, I note a few questions Morris’s work raises for future attention.

Equal Pay For Equal Play: How The Uswnt Battle For Equality Highlights The Shortcomings Of Equal Pay Jurisprudence, Lindsey Gonzalez

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Not So Clear And Plain: Exploring The Circuit Split On The Applicability Of Federal Labor & Employment Laws To Tribes, Logan C. Hibbs

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nil: The Title Iv Financial Aid Enigma, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conspiracy Theories Are Not Religions: Scrutinizing Religious Exemptions To The Covid-19 Vaccine, Shirley B. Luk

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Pandemic Of Division: Finding Justice At Work In Challenging Times, Catherine L. Fisk

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Stakeholderism Silo Busting, Aneil Kovvali

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The fields of antitrust, bankruptcy, corporate, and securities law are undergoing tumultuous debates. On one side in each field is the dominant view that each field should focus exclusively on a specific constituency—antitrust on consumers, bankruptcy on creditors, corporate law on shareholders, and securities regulation on financial investors. On the other side is a growing insurgency that seeks to broaden the focus to a larger set of stakeholders, including workers, the environment, and political communities. But these conversations have largely proceeded in parallel, with each debate unfolding within the framework and literature of a single field. Studying these debates together …

Pregnant Workers Fairness Acts: Advancing A Progressive Policy In Both Red And Blue America, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Pregnant workers often need small changes—such as permission to sit on a stool or to avoid heavy lifting—to stay on the job safely through a pregnancy. In the past decade, twenty-five states have passed laws that guarantee pregnant employees a right to reasonable accommodations at work. Despite the stark partisan divide in contemporary America, the laws have passed in both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states. This Essay offers the first detailed case study of this remarkably effective campaign, and it shows how it laid the groundwork for analogous federal legislation, passed in December 2022, that ensures workers across the country will …

Workers’ Boards: Sectoral Bargaining And Standard-Setting Mechanisms For The New Gilded Age, Sara Slinn

All Papers

This article explores the potential of sectoral standard-setting models (often referred to as “wage boards” or “workers’ boards”) as a solution for contemporary workplace issues, which existing labor relations and minimum standards regulatory systems continue to struggle to address. This argument, the article examines three historical statutory systems of sector-based minimum workplace standard-setting established in the early 20th century as a response to unacceptable wages and working conditions: the British Wages Council system, the Canadian Industrial Standards Act, and the US Fair Labor Standards Act. The article applies the conceptions of fairness identified in Seth Harris's study of the origins …

Regulating Health And Safety In Capitalist Workplaces: History, Practices And Prospects, Eric Tucker

All Papers

The chapter provides a broad overview of occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation in advanced capitalist countries with a focus on the English-speaking world. It views OHS regulation through a political economy lens in which protective legislation is enacted and implemented against the imperative of a profit-driven system of production. The chapter provide examines the historical development of OHS regulation beginning with the rise of industrial capitalism leading up to modern OHS regimes that increasing embrace mandated partial self regulation. It then considers contemporary debates over the efficacy of these regimes, focusing on the scope of self regulation, the practice …

Investing In Abolition, Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal

Faculty Publications

This Article situates the prison within a broader macro-financial trend, what I call “community capture.” As private equity firms have consolidated the market for carceral services, they have also gained control over other essential social infrastructure, like housing and healthcare. By layering debt, fees, and aggressive profit expectations over companies or assets that provide for basic needs, their strategies intensify the economic pressures communities face. These strategies rely on various forms of coordination and legal protection from contestation. To demonstrate this process in the context of mass incarceration, this Article tells the story of Securus, a dominant carceral service company …

Nondomination And The Ambitions Of Employment Law, Aditi Bagchi

Faculty Scholarship

There is something missing in existing discussions of domination. While republican theory and critical legal theory each have contributed significantly to our understanding of domination, their focus on structural relationships and group subordination can leave out of focus the individual wrongs that make up domination, each of which is an unjustified exercise of power by one person over another. Private law (supported by private law theory) plays an important role in filling out our pictures of domination and the role of the state in limiting it. Private law allows us to recognize domination in wrongs by one person against another, …

The Future Of Arbitration In The United States: Textualism, A Tectonic Shift, And A Reshaping Of The Civil Justice System, Imre S. Szalai

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Gender Equality: A Study Of Comply-Or-Explain Disclosure Regulation, Aaron A. Dhir, Sarah Kaplan, Maria Arabella Robles

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Nasdaq Stock Market filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to adopt a board diversity-related disclosure requirement for its listed companies. In 2021, the SEC approved the proposal, thus entrenching Nasdaq’s position as the most significant stock exchange to date to mandate listing rules that reflect the intention of diversifying corporate boardrooms. Nasdaq’s movement into the diversity space is not the first attempt to address homogeneous boards in the U.S. In 2009, the SEC adopted a rule requiring publicly traded firms to report on whether they consider diversity in identifying director nominees. …

Judicial Ethics And The Eradication Of Racism, Dontay Proctor-Mills

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Washington Supreme Court entrusted the legal community with working to eradicate racism from its legal system. Soon after, Washington’s Commission on Judicial Conduct (hereinafter the Commission) received a complaint about a bus ad for North Seattle College featuring King County Superior Court Judge David Keenan. Along with a photo of Judge Keenan’s face, the ad included the following language: “A Superior Court Judge, David Keenan got into law in part to advocate for marginalized communities. David’s changing the world. He started at North.” The Commission admonished Judge Keenan for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct, in part …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Why Corporate Boards Should Include Lgbtq+ People, Jeremy Mcclane, Darren Rosenblum

Seattle University Law Review

Corporate boardrooms sit at the heart of most of society’s most consequential decisions but fall far short of the diversity of our society. The current movement toward board diversification aims to remedy the underrepresentation of marginalized groups on corporate boards. More recently, some efforts have included LGBTQ+ people, even though the basis for their inclusion on corporate boards remains largely unstated. This Article examines both the normative and instrumental bases for LGBTQ+ inclusion in board diversity initiatives, articulating unspoken assumptions and linking LGBTQ+ people to the broader inclusion effort. In so doing, it begins to surface the unique issues LGBTQ+ …

Ensuring The Laws Barring Sexual Harassment Protect The Reticent Victim, Joseph M. Sellers, Aniko R. Schwarcz

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

According to multiple employee surveys, sexual harassment is one of the most underreported forms of abuse in the workplace. There are a number of reasons that reportedly account for this reluctance to complain about sexual harassment. They include the potential shame, embarrassment, and fear that may accompany reports of sexual harassment and the blame and heightened scrutiny of the victim that may be prompted by these complaints. Unlike most other forms of discrimination, where their presence may be inferred from patterns observed in workforce data, sexual harassment is typically undetectable and certainly not actionable unless it is the subject of …

Nil Collectives - Title Ix's Latest Challenge, Kassandra Ramsey

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article explores the intersection of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Collectives and Title IX, arguing that while NIL Collectives are not directly subject to Title IX, colleges and universities must ensure these organizations comply with Title IX to maintain gender equity. Schools are responsible due to their federal funding and their promotion of these collectives, necessitating guidelines, education, and audits to prevent disparities in opportunities for male and female athletes.

The Nil Revolution: What's Next?, Andrew Zimbalist

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article examines the transformative impact of the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) revolution on college athletics, highlighting its legal, economic, and educational implications. It traces the evolution from historical amateurism to recent legal challenges, such as White v. NCAA and O'Bannon v. NCAA, which have reshaped compensation rules for student-athletes. The NIL revolution has introduced a new market where athletes can earn money, but it also raises concerns about equity, financial sustainability for colleges, and the educational welfare of athletes. The author argues that while the NCAA has struggled to lead reforms effectively, Congressional intervention may be necessary …

Unbundling Social Security From The Payroll Tax, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

To preserve social security as a welfare program primarily for older individuals and to ameliorate the distributional inequity of funding social security across income and wealth levels, this article recommends unbundling the benefit side of social security from its longstanding payroll tax funding mechanism. The article recommends replacing the payroll tax revenue with a budget allocation from general revenues accompanied by both revenue raisers and benefit limitations. Income tax rate increases linked to repeal of the FICA tax and tax expenditure limitations would enhance income tax revenue. Modifying social security benefits from their current overinclusive, entitlement structure for all to …

A Worker-Centered Trade Policy, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

What is a “worker-centered” trade policy? The Biden administration claims that it means protecting all workers—foreign and American—from exploitative working conditions in trade sectors. The administration’s vigorous enforcement of international labor rights suggests a significant departure from previous U.S. trade priorities centered on domestic interests. For economic and humanitarian reasons, various policymakers and scholars celebrate these developments. They optimistically assume that the administration’s new trade policy will influence foreign governments and facilities to comply with international labor rights in trade if the costs of noncompliance outweigh the benefits. They also assume that the policy will influence compliance with strong labor …

Labor Law Unrealized: The Stifling Of Workers’ Collective Rights In The United States, Angela B. Cornell

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Working Through The Supreme Court's 2021 Term, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Faculty Publications

Despite the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court's 2021 term, the labor and employment cases, in comparison, might seem relatively uneventful. Although there are several cases summarized below, most of them deal with relatively minor issues surrounding arbitration, or with lesser litigated statutes, such as USERRA and ERISA. This review also includes a summary of the administrative law case regarding the Environmental Protection Act because it could (and perhaps likely will) have ramifications for labor and employment law.

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This review proceeds in two additional parts. Part II of this review summarizes the opinions from the 2021 term. At the end …