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7 Comp. Lab. L. 319 (1986)
Methods of Comparative Labor Law in the United States

handle is hein.journals/cllpj7 and id is 333 raw text is: METHODS OF COMPARATIVE LABOR LAW IN THE UNITED STATES ALVIN L. GOLDMAN* I. Introduction This paper, which is a modification of a report prepared for the Xlth World Congress of the International Society for Labor Law and Social Security, reviews the use of foreign labor law comparisons by American law makers, legal scholars, and students, and offers general observations regarding the methodology of comparative labor law studies. While this report is directed at comparative inquiries into foreign labor law systems, at the outset it should be noted that comparative methodology plays a significant role in the United States even when inquiries are confined to domestic legal sources. Because the United States has a federal system of government in which the states exercise important authority regarding many aspects of labor law, domestically oriented comparative studies in the United States, just like comparative inquiries that use foreign resources, often aim at discovering or assessing the effectiveness and impact of alternative approaches to resolving a problem. For example, in recent years, in an effort to discover the optimum system of government employee labor re- lations, many American studies have compared the approaches that dif- ferent states in the United States take in regulating government employee collective bargaining'-an approach that basically is no different from examining the same question in relation to foreign legal institutions. Similarly, in the rapidly developing area of judicially created remedies for unjust dismissal, the courts and the commentators, searching for wis- dom in the decisional explications of different jurists, regularly compare the approaches taken in the various states.2 The foregoing illustrates the extent to which the federal structure * Professor of Law, University of Kentucky. 1. See, e.g., S. Woodbury, The Scope of Bargaining Outcomes in the Public Schools, 38 INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 195 (1985). 2. See, eg., M. Kramer, The Role of Federal Courts in Changing State Law The Employment at Will Doctrine in Pennsylvania, 133 U. PA. L. REV. 227 (1984); Note, Ensuring Good Faith in Dismissals, 63 TEx. L. RE,. 285 (1984).

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