Private law affects the livelihoods of working people in fundamental ways. Research at ACT seeks to understand how we could rethink private law institutions to support sustainable work and just labour relations for everyone across the globe.

Ongoing processes of globalisation, financialisation and digitalisation have brought about deep transformations in the structure and functions of organised economic activities. With the help of private law, work relations have accordingly been subjected to the logic of digital platforms, global supply chains or the pressuring dynamics of financial markets. These examples have in common that they question the effectiveness of labour protection regimes in place and the role of organised labour as an actor in the ordering of work relations.  Therefore, new analytical lenses and updated normative frameworks are needed to grasp and (where necessary) transform the distribution of power and resources in the emerging new modalities of work and work relations at the local, national and transnational level.

At ACT, we currently address the question of just labour relations through three main strands of research. Starting from the premise that private law has played a pivotal role in upholding different structures of labour exploitation (including reproductive labour), the first strand of research is concerned with the question of workers’ involvement in workplace governance. Next to questions of the involvement of trade unions and works councils, particularly relevant is the role of workers and worker representatives as stakeholders in companies of different kinds, especially in light of corporate sustainability due diligence processes and (transnational) corporate restructurings. The second strand of research focuses on the role of private law in shaping and supporting more sustainable labour relations in alternative forms of organised economic activity such as cooperatives and other social enterprises. The third addresses the specific problems of regulating labour relations and workers’ protection in a transnational context.