Social Regionalism in the Idea of Transnational Labour Law

We have entered a moment of profound challenge for open societies. Inequality – within and across states in the global South and the global North – is at record, and unsustainable, levels. Workers in many states across the globe have voiced deep disenchantment at falling so far behind, economically, that their standard of living is lower than that of their parents. It becomes all too easy to kindle nationalistic rage through xenophobic politicking. But it is also a mistake for those committed to trade integration to assume that the benefits of globalization need simply to be better explained to the worker-consumer-citizens who fear they have been forgotten.
This timely, interdisciplinary research project has two objectives: First, it challenges the premises that the trade law regime should leave labour redistribution to individual states alone, no matter how small or poor or marginalized they are in the global economy. Second, it considers alternatives, by centering learning from the global South, notably from SADC, the AfCFTA and CARICOM, alongside engagement with the EU and CETA. It foregrounds the prospect that regionalism might allow actors to think differently about how to provide social welfare and foster respect for labour rights across national borders (social regionalism).