Research and Publications

What we research

Our research reflects upon and shapes the direction of the emerging and contested field of Transnational Labour Law.  Over the years, our research has introduced key considerations into current debates on the direction of transnational labour law as a field and offered critical engagement with the following themes: 

  1. The relationship between labour law and development, both in the global South and in the global North
  2. Hegemonic transplantation of labour regulatory frameworks in labour law, from the global North to the global South
  3. The transnational regulation of decent work for domestic workers, including the intersection of multiple grounds of discrimination (race, gender, nationality) and regulatory innovation in the global South
  4. Social regionalism as counter-hegemonic, multilevel governance of the relationship of the social in the economic, and engaging international solidarity
  5. Labour market informality in its relationship to legal pluralism, and regulatory transformation
  6. Labour migration, the ‘South of the North’, and the decent work complement to reasonable labour market access
  7. Emancipation in the idea of labour law, including labour law as development.

In addition to the research undertaken by the Labour Law and Development Research Network (LLDRN), the LLDRL also supports graduate and postdoctoral fellows interested in completing research on the themes listed above. Many of our fellows visit the LLDRL through the O'Brien Fellowship program of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. Graduate fellows have benefitted from other sources of postdoctoral support, including under the Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law and Development (2016-2017), a SSCHR Banting Fellowship (2011-2013), as well as CRIMT-LLDRL Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2010).

What we publish

Working papers series

The LLDRL periodically publishes commissioned working papers on labour law and development, focusing in particular on historical analyses and discussions of pluralist sources of labour law. 

Dzodzi Tsikata
Promoting Change in Domestic Work Conditions from Outside the State in a Context of Regulatory Inertia: The Case of Ghana
LLDRL Working Paper Series #9, July 2018

Louise Boivin
Chèque service, normes du travail et liberté d'association: Le cas du Québec
LLDRL Working Paper Series #8, July 2017

Adelle Blackett and Thierry Galani Tiemeni
Regulatory Innovation in The Governance of Decent Work for Domestic Workers in South Africa: Access to Justice and the Commission on Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration 
LLDRL Working Paper Series #7, September 2016 (2nd edition: December 2016).

Adelle Blackett with the collaboration of Assata Koné-Silué
Regulatory Innovation in the Governance of Decent Work for Domestic Workers in Côte d'Ivoire: Labour Administration and the Judiciary under a Generalist Labour Code 
LLDRL Working Paper Series #6, March 2016.

Lorena Poblete
New Rights, Old Social Protection: The New Regulation for Domestic Workers in Argentina 
LLDRL Working Paper Series #5, May 2015.

Assata Koné-Silué
La négociation collective comme source de normativité en droit du travail ivoirien 
LLDRL Working Paper Series #4, 2014.

Moreira Gomes, Ana Virgínia and Martins Bertolin, Patrícia Tuma
Regulatory Challenges of Domestic Work: The Case of Brazil 
LLDRL Working Paper #3, 2010.

Jean-Marie Tchakoua
Les tendances de la négociation collective de l'ère nouvelle au Cameroun 
LLDRL Working Paper #2, 2010.

David Austin
Pan-Africanism, Caribbean Exile, and Post-Colonial Africa 
LLDRL Working Paper #1, 2010.

Special publications on topics related to the LLDRL 

Transnational labour law

"Decolonizing Labour Law: Contributions to an Emergent Transnational Labour Law," Vol. 33:2, Revue Canadienne Droit et Société / Canadian Journal of Law and Society (2018), with contributions from Adelle Blackett (guest editor), as well as a range of doctoral and postdoctoral fellows from McGill University affiliated with the LLDRL and speakers who presented their work through the LLDRL, including Sabaa Khan (alumni of the LLDRL), Zobaida Khan (alumni), Armel Brice Adanhounme (member of the LLDRL) et Martin Gallié (member of the LLDRL). 

"The Research Handbook on Transnational Labour Law," (2015) edited by Adelle Blackett and Anne Trebilcock (Edward Elgar Publishing). 

"Social Regionalism in the Global Economy," (2011) edited by Adelle Blackett and Christian Lévesque (Routledge).

Labour law and development

"Labor Law and Development: Perspectives on Labor Regulation in Africa and the African Diaspora," Vol. 32:2, Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal (2011), with contributions from Adelle Blackett (guest editor), Dzodzi Tsikata, Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Diamond Ashiagbor et Chantal Thomas (all members and alumni of the LLDRL). 

Adelle Blackett, "Trade Liberalization, Labour Law and Development: A Contextualization," (2007) International Institute for Labour Studies Discussion Paper No. 179.

Regulation of decent work for domestic workers

"Regulatory Innovation on Decent Work for Domestic Workers in the Hight of International Labour Organization Convention No. 189," Vol 34:2, International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, (2018), a special section on decent work for domestic workers, with contributions from Adelle Blackett (co-guest editor), Anne Trebilcock (co-guest editor), Lorena Poblete and Thierry Galani Tiemeni (all members of the LLDRL). 

Elsa Galerand, Martin Gallié (member of the LLDRL) and Jeanne Olivier Gobeil, "Domestic Labour and Exploitation: The Case of Live-In Caregiver in Canada (LCP)," (Janvier 2015), in collaboration with PINAY and the Service aux collectivités de l’UQAM.

This report is also available in french.

"Regulating Decent Work for Domestic Workers," Vol 23:1, Revue Femmes et Droit / Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (2011), a special number on domestic workers, with contributions from Adelle Blackett (guest editor) and Dzodzi Tsikata (member of the LLDRL).

Dzodzi Tsikata, "Domestic work and domestic workers in Ghana: An overview of the legal regime and practice," (2009) ILO Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 23. 

Adelle Blackett, "Making domestic work visible: The case for specific regulation," (1998) ILO, Labour Law and Labour Relations Programme. 

Back to top