Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-txr5j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-10T07:39:14.126Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What makes an international institution work for labor activists? Shaping international law through strategic litigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Filiz Kahraman
Filiz Kahraman*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
*
Filiz Kahraman, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada., Email: filiz.kahraman@utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies on international legal mobilization often analyze the mobilization efforts of activists at a single international court. Yet we know little about how activists choose among multiple international institutions to advance social justice claims. Drawing on comparative case studies of Turkish and British trade union activists' legal mobilization efforts and case law analysis, I show that activists, guided by their lawyers, probe multiple avenues to identify the legal institution with the highest judicial authority and is most responsive to activists' claims. Once they identify their target institution, the iterative process between a responsive court and activists' strategic litigation can build a court's jurisprudence in a new issue area, even if the court provides limited de jure rights protections. Activists primarily use international litigation strategy to leverage structural reforms at the domestic level and to set new international norms through precedents.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 61 - 82
Copyright
© 2023 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

How to cite this article: Kahraman, Filiz. 2023. “What Makes an International Institution Work for Labor Activists? Shaping International Law through Strategic Litigation.” Law & Society Review 57(1): 61–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12643

References

REFERENCES

Alston, Philip, and Goodman, Ryan. 2013. International Human Rights: Text and Materials. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alter, Karen Helfer, Helfer, Laurance R., and Madsen, Mikael Rask. 2016. “How Context Shapes the Authority of International Courts.” Law and Contemporary Problems 79(1): 1–39.Google Scholar
Alter, Karen, and Vargas, Jeannette. 2000. “Explaining Variation in the Use of European Litigation Strategies: European Community Law and British Gender Equality Policy.” Comparative Political Studies 33(4): 452–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anagnostou, Dia. 2013. European Court of Human Rights: Implementing Strasbourg's Judgments on Domestic Policy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Anagnostou, Dia. 2014. Rights and Courts in Pursuit of Social Change: Legal Mobilization in the Multi-Level European System. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Anner, Mark, and Caraway, Teri. 2010. “International Institutions and workers' Rights: Between Labor Standards and Market Flexibility.” Studies in Comparative International Development 45(2): 151–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayoub, Phillip. 2016. When States Come out: Europe's Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Andrew, and Checkel, Jeffrey. 2014. “Process Tracing.” In Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, edited by Bennett, Andrew and Checkel, Jeffrey, 3–37. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogg, Alan L. 2005. “Employment Relations Act 2004: Another False Dawn for Collectivism?” Industrial Law Journal 34(1): 72–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogg, Alan L., and Ewing, Keith. 2014. “The Implications of the RMT Case.” Industrial Law Journal 43(3): 221–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke-White, W. 2004. “International Legal Pluralism.” Michigan Journal of International Law 25(4): 963–979.Google Scholar
Busch, Marc L. 2007. “Overlapping Institutions, Forum Shopping, and Dispute Settlement in International Trade.” International Organization 61(4): 735–761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çalı, Başak, and Koch, Anne. 2014. “Foxes Guarding the Foxes? The Peer Review of Human Rights Judgments by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.” Human Rights Law Review 14(2): 301–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, R. C. 2007. “Studying Issue (Non)-Adoption in Transnational Advocacy Networks.” International Organization 61(3): 643–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carruba, Clifford J., Gabel, Matthew, and Hankla, Charles. 2008. “Judicial Behavior under Political Constraints.” American Political Science Review 106(1): 214–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. 2007. The European Court and Civil Society: Litigation, Mobilization and Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. 2016. “The European Court of Human Rights, Amicus Curiae, and Violence against Women.” Law and Society Review 50(4): 890–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conant, L. 2006. “Individuals, Courts, and the Development of European Social Rights.” Comparative Political Studies 39(1): 76–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conant, L., Hofmann, Andreas, Soennecken, Dagmar, and Vanhala, Lisa. 2017. “Mobilizing European law.” Journal of European Public Policy 25(9): 1376–1389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Anne C. L. 2008. “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? The Viking and Laval Cases in the ECJ.” Industrial Law Journal 37(2): 126–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dzehtsiarou, Kanstantsin. 2015. European Consensus and the Legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewing, Keith, and Hendy, John. 2010. “The Dramatic Implications of Demir and Baykara.” Industrial Law Journal 39(1): 2–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change.” International Organization 52(4): 887–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudge, Judy. 2015. “Constitutionalizing Labour Rights in Canada and Europe: Freedom of Association, Collective Bargaining, and Strikes.” Current Legal Problems 68(1): 267–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomez-Mera, Laura, and Molinari, Andrea. 2014. “Overlapping Institutions, Learning, and Dispute Initiation in Regional Trade Agreements: Evidence from South America.” International Studies Quarterly 58(2): 269–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guillaume, C. 2015. “Understanding the Variations of unions' Litigation Strategies to Promote Equal Pay: Reflection on the British Case.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 39(2): 363–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haddad, Heidi Nichols. 2018. The Hidden Hands of Justice: NGOs, Human Rights, and International Courts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., Victor, David G., and Lupu, Yonatan. 2012. “Political Science Research on International Law: The State of the Field.” American Journal of International Law 106(1): 47–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, D. G. 2002. International Human Rights and Authoritarian Rule in Chile. Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Darren, and Jacoby, Wade. 2010. “Partial Compliance: A Comparison of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights.” Journal of International Law and International Relations 6(1): 35–86.Google Scholar
Helfer, Laurence R., and Voeten, Erik. 2014. “International Courts as Agents of Legal Change: Evidence from LGBT Rights in Europe.” International Organization 68(1): 77–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, Laura A., Sundstrom, Lisa Mc Intosh, Winston, Carla, and Bala-Miller, Priya. 2019. “NGO Participation in Global Governance Institutions: International and Domestic Drivers of Engagement.” Interest Groups & Advocacy 8(3): 291–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillebrecht, Courtney. 2014. Domestic Politics and International Human Rights Tribunals: The Problem of Compliance. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillebrecht, Courtney. 2021. Saving the International Justice Regime. Beyond Backlash against International Courts. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilson, Chris. 2002. “New Social Movements: The Role of Legal Opportunity.” Journal of European Public Policy 9(2): 238–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, L. C. 2014. “Activists and Lawyers in the ECtHR: The Struggle for Gay Rights.” In Rights and Courts in Pursuit of Social Change, edited by Anagnostou, D. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Holzmeyer, Cheryl. 2009. “Human Rights in an Era of Neoliberal Globalization: The Alien Tort Claims Act and Grassroots Mobilization in Doe V. Unocal.” Law & Society Review 43(2): 271–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahraman, Filiz. 2018. “A New Era for Labor Activism? Strategic Mobilization of Human Rights against Blacklisting.” Law & Social Inquiry 43(4): 1279–1307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahraman, Filiz, Kalyanpur, Nikhil, and Newman, Abraham L. 2020. “Domestic Courts, Transnational Law, and International Order.” European Journal of International Relations 26(1_suppl): 184–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kelemen, R. Daniel. 2016. “The Court of Justice of the European Union in the Twenty-First Century.” Law and Contemporary Problems 79(1): 117–140.Google Scholar
Kurban, D. 2020. Limits of Supranational Justice: The European Court of Human Rights and Turkey's Kurdish Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsson, Olof, and Naurin, Daniel. 2016. “Judicial Independence and Political Uncertainty: How the Risk of Override Affects the Court of Justice of the EU.” International Organization 70(2): 377–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, M. R., Cebulak, P., and Wiebusch, M. 2018. “Resistance to International Courts Introduction and Conclusion.” International Journal of Law in Context 14(2): 193–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 2006. Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W., and Lovell, G. I. 2020. Union by Law: Filipino American Labor Activists, Rights Radicalism, and Racial Capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meakin, J., 2020. “Labour and Constitutionalism-from-below: On the Effective Potential of Legal Strategy.” Doctoral diss., University of Glasgow.Google Scholar
OECD. 2018. “Trade Union Density.” OECD.Stat. (Database).Google Scholar
O'Sullivan, M., Turner, T., Kennedy, M., and Wallace, J. 2015. “Is Individual Employment Law Displacing the Role of Trade Unions?” Industrial Law Journal 44(2): 222–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavone, Tommaso. 2022. The Ghostwriters: Lawyers and the Politics behind the Judicial Construction of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, Brigit, and Schaffer, Johan Karlsson. 2013. “The Turn to Authority beyond States.” Transnational Legal Theory 4(3): 315–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psychogiopoulou, Evangelia. 2014. “European Courts and the Rights of Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Greece.” In Rights and Courts in Pursuit of Social Change, edited by Anagnostou, D. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin, and Scheingold, Stuart. 1998. Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, B. A. 2009. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiansen, Øyvind, and Voeten, Erik. 2020. “Backlash and Judicial Restraint: Evidence from the European Court of Human Rights.” International Studies Quarterly 64(4): 770–784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundstrom, Lisa M. 2014. “Russian NGOs and the European Court of Human Rights: A Spectrum of Approaches to Litigation.” Human Rights Quarterly 36(4): 844–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundstrom, Lisa M., and Sperling, Valerie. 2020. “Seeking Better Judgment: LGBT Discrimination Cases in Russia and at the European Court of Human Rights.” The International Journal of Human Rights 24(6): 750–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Vet, Freek. 2012. “Seeking Life, Finding Justice: Russian NGO Litigation and Chechen Disappearances before the European Court of Human Rights.” Human Rights Review 13(3): 303–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Vet, Freek. 2018. ““When they Come for you” : Legal Mobilization in New Authoritarian Russia.” Law and Society Review 52(2): 301–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanhala, Lisa. 2010. Making Rights a Reality? Disability Rights Activists and Legal Mobilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanhala, Lisa. 2018. “Is Legal Mobilization for the Birds? Legal Opportunity Structures and Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Kingdom, France, Finland, and Italy.” Comparative Political Studies 51(3): 380–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Staden, Andreas. 2018. Strategies of Compliance with the European Court of Human Rights: Rational Choice within Normative Constraints. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisband, Edward. 2006. “Verdictive Discourses, Shame and Judicialization in Pursuit of Freedom of Asociation Rights.” In The Legalization of Human Rights: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Human Rights and Human Rights Law, edited by Meckled-Garcia, Saladin and Çalı, Başak. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Wiener, Antje. 2007. “Contested Meanings of Norms: A Research Framework.” Comparative European Politics 5(1): 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwingel, Susanne. 2016. Translating International Women's Rights: The CEDAW Convention in Context. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

CASES CITED

Akarsubaşı v. Turkey, Application No. 70396/11, ECHR 2015.Google Scholar
Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Fireman (ASLEF) v. the United Kingdom, Application No. 11002/05, ECHR 2007.Google Scholar
Decision on admissibility and the merits Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO) v. Sweden, Complaint No. 85/2012, ECSR, 2012.Google Scholar
Demir and Baykara v. Turkey, Application No 34503/97, ECHR 2008.Google Scholar
Dilek and Others v. Turkey, Application No 74611/01 26876/02 27628/02, ECHR 2007.Google Scholar
Enerji Yapi-Yol Sen v. Turkey, Application No 68959/01, ECHR 2009.Google Scholar
Karaçay v. Turkey, Application No 6615/03, ECHR 2007.Google Scholar
Karademirci and Others v. Turkey, Application Nos 37096/97, 37101/97, ECHR 2005.Google Scholar
Metin Turan v. Turkey, Application No20868/02, ECHR 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Union of Belgian Police v. Belgium, Series A no. 19 1975.Google Scholar
R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor, UKSC 51. 2017.Google Scholar
Siliadin v. France, Application No 73316/01 ECHR 2005.Google Scholar
Swedish Engine Drivers' Union v. Sweden, Series A no. 20 1976.Google Scholar
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) v. the UK, Application No 31045/10, ECHR 2014.Google Scholar
Tüm Haber-Sen v. Turkey, Application No 28602/95 ECHR 2006.Google Scholar
Unison v UK, Application No. 53574/99. ECHR 2002.Google Scholar
Wilson and the National Union of Journalists; Palmer, Wyeth and National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and others v. United Kingdom, Application Nos 30668/96, 30671/96 and 30678/96, ECHR 2002.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Kahraman supplementary material
Download undefined(File)
File 50.7 KB