Why another Blog?

Law, Labour and Life is a reincarnation of a blog I created several years ago to comment on a previous period of attacks on the legal rights and protections afforded to workers in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Political developments under the current government suggest that it might be timely to revive that earlier blog. As the title suggests the blog will focus on labour law and labour relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand but there are likely to be some diversions into life generally as the mood takes me. My objective is to post at least once weekly. However a subscription (free) will ensure you receive posts as they appear even if they only appear irregularly.

Who am I and why should you read this blog? I am an Emeritus Professor of Law at Te Herenga Waka, the Victoria University of Wellington (ie retired) and have spent most of my academic career teaching, researching and writing on labour law. Most recently I published, with Professors Joellen Riley (Australia) and Douglas Brodie (Scotland) Employment Law for a Brave New World (Edward Elgar), a book speculating on the challenges facing labour law and the ability of the common law and legislatures in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to rise to the challenges of regulating for those challenges.

I have always seen the primary function of labour law as protecting workers. English common law which remains the foundation of New Zealand law was always concerned to provide employers with cheap, flexible, compliant and subserviant workers. Attempts to level the labour market playing field through statutes amelorating unequal bargaining power and providing workers with fundamental rights have always been strongly resisted by employers. Again, after a quarter of a century of relative legal stability, the right-wing attack on labour rights that reached its peak in 1991 has resumed again - hence the resurection of this blog to try and provide some commentary on these attacks.