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22 Feminist L. Stud. 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/femlst22 and id is 1 raw text is: Fern Leg Stud (2014) 22:1-23
DOI 10.1007/s10691-014-9256-2
Feminist Reflections on the Scope of Labour Law:
Domestic Work, Social Reproduction, and Jurisdiction
Judy Fudge
Published online: 25 February 2014
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract Drawing on feminist labour law and political economy literature, I argue
that it is crucial to interrogate the personal and territorial scope of labour. After
discussing the commodification of care, global care chains, and body work, I
claim that the territorial scope of labour law must be expanded beyond that nation
state to include transnational processes. I use the idea of social reproduction both to
illustrate and to examine some of the recurring regulatory dilemmas that plague
labour markets. I argue that unpaid care and domestic work performed in the
household, typically by women, troubles the personal scope of labour law. I use the
example of this specific type of personal service relation to illustrate my claim that
the jurisdiction of labour law is historical and contingent, rather than conceptual and
universal. I conclude by identifying some of the implications of redrawing the
territorial and personal scope of labour law in light of feminist understandings of
social reproduction.
Keywords Labour law - Care - Domestic work - Gender - Work - Social
reproduction
Introduction
The erosion of the standard employment relationship, the male-breadwinner and
female housewife gender contract, the vertically integrated firm, and trade unions'
economic and political power has combined with globalising economic relations to
create a crisis for labour law in the developed world as labour law's norms have
been weakened and its ability to protect workers has been undermined (Davidov and
Langille 2011). In the developing world, labour law's capacity to provide a stable
J. Fudge (®)
Kent Law School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NS, UK
e-mail: J.A.Fudge@kent.ac.uk

I_ Springer

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