Labour Justice: A Constitutional Evaluation of Labour Law
Webinar presented by:
Associate Professor Supriya Routh (University of British Columbia)
with commentary from Dr Petra Mahy and Professor Sean Cooney (Melbourne Law School)
Monday 24 March 2025
About the webinar
The Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law was pleased to host Associate Professor Supriya Routh for a discussion on the topic of his new book, Labour Justice: A Constitutional Evaluation of Labour Law. Dr Petra Mahy and Professor Sean Cooney also provided brief reflections in response to the book.
In the book, Supriya argues that work (or labour) is the basis of constitutional citizenship and the constitutional account of social justice unfolds (ought to unfold) with reference to “worker-citizens”. He does so by drawing on Indian citizens’ constitutional duty to work in furthering the state to higher levels of achievement. Having argued that the social justice framework of the Indian Constitution is structured around the idea of “worker-citizens”, Supriya evaluates India’s new labour laws – aimed at expanding the coverage of labour rights to formerly excluded workers (informal workers) and newer categories of workers (gig and platform-based workers) – on the basis of their ability to meet the constitutional standard of social justice. In offering such evaluation, he conceives of work in its wider social relationship in contrast to its narrower private exchange rationale.
Supriya Routh is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Labour Law & Social Justice at the Allard School of Law, the University of British Columbia. His research interests include theory of labour and employment law, legitimacy of law-making for sustainable livelihoods, postcolonialism and informal workers in the Global South, human rights and international labour law, and workers’ collective action. His socio-legal research agenda straddles the disciplines of law, political philosophy, and sociology. He is the author of Labour Justice: A Constitutional Evaluation of Labour Law (CUP, 2024) and Enhancing Capabilities through Labour Law: Informal Workers in India (Routledge, 2014). He has co-edited three books and authored or co-authored numerous articles on the above research areas.
Dr Petra Mahy is a Senior Lecturer at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. She is both a lawyer and an anthropologist, with interdisciplinary interests in comparative law, socio-legal and regulatory studies. She researches in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Indonesia, and writes on labour regulation among other areas.
Sean Cooney is a professor at Melbourne Law School. His research interests concern international and comparative labour and employment law, with a focus on Asia. He has worked on new approaches to improving international working standards, including on Australian Research Council-funded collaborative projects on Chinese labour law reform; enforcement in Australia; and assessing the effect of legal change in several Asia-Pacific countries. He has published articles in major refereed law journals in the United States, China and Australia. Between 2014 and 2016, Sean served as a Legal Specialist in the Labour Law and Reform Unit at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, where he provided advice to governments in countries such as China, India, Myanmar and Pakistan. He continues to consult for the ILO.