Rethinking the Concept of the Employer in the Digital Economy: Corporate Fragmentation and Power Dynamics Through Labour Law and Competition Law Lenses

This article argues that the transformative dynamics brought along by the digital economy call for a normative rethinking of the allocation of employers’ obligations across the value chain, so as to better target the actual holders of labour market power. There is a growing mismatch between the role of the employer as typified in labour law frameworks — as the owner of productive assets and able to conduct its business autonomously — and the limited bargaining autonomy of the firms that gravitate in the ecosystems of digital tech corporations. This phenomenon can be attributed to two parallel trends. The first is the aggravation of contractual and corporate fragmentation, driven by subcontracting and outsourcing practices; while the second is the changing nature of power dynamics among business players, resulting in new forms of market concentration. If left unaddressed, both evolutions would eventually lead to a widespread deterioration of working conditions. The article therefore seeks insights into how the scope of the obligations of the employer might be broadened beyond the contractual employment relationship. To this end, it explores recent normative openings in European Union labour law such as the Platform Work Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. It also draws on competition law developments in the digital economy field, which might provide interesting insights for promoting fairer labour markets in situations of excessive power concentration

Navigating Crisis: Law, Technology, and Global Governance at the Nathanson Centre Event

At a time when the world grapples with political instability, technological upheaval, and shifting legal paradigms, on May 5th, The Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre hosted a panel series event centred on the theme of “crisis.” Three panels explored crises in governance, taxation, corporate power, incarceration, and the law’s role in mitigating disruptions. Across these discussions, themes of technological transformation, legal uncertainty, and shifting global power structures emerged as key reflection points

Legal Pluralism in Canada and the Vitality of Indigenous Law

State law in Canada consists of the civil law in private law matters in Quebec and the common law in public law matters there and generally in the rest of the country, supplemented by legislation. Legislative authority is divided by the Constitution Act, 1867,1 between the federal government and the ten provinces. In addition, the three territories – Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut – have legislative authority that has been delegated to them by the Parliament of Canada. This federal division of powers means that there is federal law that is generally uniform throughout Canada (e.g. criminal law) and provincial and territorial law that varies from province to province and territory to territory. Quebec law varies the most because it is based on Quebec’s Civil Code and supplementary legislation

Probative of Prejudice: Procedural Unfairness Underlying Security Threat Group Classifications in Canadian Prisons

Achieving meaningful oversight and enforcement of prisoners’ rights has long been a challenge for those incarcerated in Canada’s prison system. This is illustrated in part by how the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) applies the Security Threat Group (STG) classification to Black prisoners. CSC disproportionately classifies Black prisoners as being members or affiliates of STGS–even when those allegations are of unknown reliability. This paper analytically highlights how this practice impacts the liberty interests of these prisoners on the basis of unproven allegations. It also considers how a lack of procedural safeguards in this context contributes to a larger pattern of systemic anti-Black racism within Canadian prisons. This paper argues that requiring STG involvement to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt before an independent decision-maker would serve as an important reform toward addressing this issue. While such a measure would not remedy the systemic nature of anti-Black racism within CSC, it could nevertheless meaningfully reduce instances of unfounded STG classifications for all prisoners, avoid arbitrarily prolonging periods of incarceration, and serve as a basis to expand procedural safeguards in response to other forms of over-securitization

The Effect of an ‘Appearance, Presentation and Demeanour’ Instruction on Credibility and Deception Judgments in Mock Refugee Status Decisions

Can a written instruction convince refugee status decision-makers not to rely on a claimant’s ‘appearance, presentation, and demeanour’ in judging the claimant’s credibility? How else might such an instruction affect the decision-makers’ deception judgments? This study explored the effects of an APD instruction on the judgments of lay decision-makers making credibility judgments in a simulated refugee hearing (n=275). It sought, by means of an experiment, to quantify the instruction’s effects both on decision- making outcomes and on the written reasons that the decision-makers offered to justify their conclusions. The APD instruction in our study had no significant effect on whether participants judged the claimant to be credible or deceptive, how confidently they reached either kind of conclusion, or how thoroughly they justified their reasoning. Those who received the instruction, however, cited APD factors significantly less often in supporting their judgments. Under this study’s simplified experimental conditions, the APD instruction may have caused decision-makers, consciously or otherwise, to suppress the fact that APD factors had influenced their thinking, driving these factors underground. In real life, this kind of suppression would have serious consequences for the rule of law, as it would immunize flawed reasoning from appeal or review. This study’s findings, which have implications for credibility assessment in other legal settings, call into question the received wisdom that written instructions are an effective way to dissuade decision-makers from relying on unsound deception inferences

Navigating the Paths to Justice: A Study on the Role of Social Supports in Responding to Justiciable Events

This article reports the results of an in-depth qualitative study of advice-seeking behaviours in a large Canadian city. Nine participants were recruited from neighbourhood houses in the Vancouver area to discuss their experiences in responding to one of two kinds of justiciable event: a personal injury or a government benefits problem. The paper offers a detailed discussion of nuances in how individuals experienced, characterized, and took action in response to their justiciable problem. Notably, many of the research participants spoke about the importance of social supports and the contingent nature of those supports, both in understanding what they had experienced and in deciding how to respond. This finding suggests that future research on unmet legal needs and advice-seeking behaviour should more explicitly consider the implications of individuals’ social embeddedness in responding to access to justice problems

Social Conflict and Indigenous Consent in Mining: A Primer on CSR, ESG and Social disclosures to Investors

The transnational corporate structure of mining companies makes it challenging to conduct independent investigations of allegations of social or environmental harm. A parent company can hide behind a multitude of subsidiaries in a multitude of jurisdictions to avoid liability. This article explores one way to bypass these corporate structures through the disclosure requirements of securities legislation. When a parent company fails to disclose social conflict or lack of Indigenous consent at a project, investors may be harmed when the stock price falls. This article describes six empirical studies, supported by extensive macro studies, which show that when social conflict or lack of Indigenous consent in extractive projects become public, the share price falls. I highlight the case of Tahoe Resources in Guatemala that had one of the largest silver mines in the world, whose stocks were worth almost $US 26, but was sold to another company at$US 3.40 when a court in Guatemala ordered the mine suspended because of a failure to consult Indigenous people. We show that company corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects and third-party analyses of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors are not designed to disclose specific problems at specific projects, and consequently do not provide investors and analysts the information needed to properly value the company\u27s securities. Because companies have generally failed to disclose pertinent information under voluntary guidelines, we conclude by providing concrete suggestions for mandatory disclosure on social conflict and Indigenous consent. The implementation of a mandatory reporting regime will not provide any direct redress to communities or Indigenous communities that are harmed, but it may affect company behaviour, and certainly it will help investors

JLSP Symposium 2025 Part 1 - Legal Responses to Displacement: The Role of Legal Advocates in Protecting the Unhoused

The theme of this year\u27s symposium was: Power and Property: Who Belongs in the City? Through the following expert panels, the symposium brought together legal academics, legal aid lawyers, and community advocates, to explore critical issues of displacement, power, and property in urban spaces

The Legal Framework for Sexual Harassment at Work in Australia and in Québec: Case Studies of Complexity and Its Countervailing Forces

This paper analyses the complex legal framework for sexual harassment at work in Australia and Québec using Peter Schuck’s (1992) definition of complexity and drawing on Alejandro Camacho and Robert Glicksman’s (2019) model of the dimensions of authority and how they combine with the different functions an authority carries out. In both Australia and Québec, overlapping institutions and approaches can improve enforcement, especially when they are coordinated. overlap is less likely to improve matters if the focus is on standard-setting, where uniformity is important to ensure the clarity, transparency, and legitimacy of the rules for duty holders and workers. Harmonisation of legal definitions of sexual harassment and timelines can mitigate the negative impact of the law’s complexity, as can dovetailing (specifying in one law how its provisions fit with the provisions of another law). In terms of recourse and prevention of sexual harassment, some of the benefits of human rights expertise can sometimes be conserved even if there is centralised recourse under labour law. However, in both Australia and Québec, collaboration between human rights institutions and labour law institutions emerges as a major challenge. Empirical research is necessary to grasp the opportunities that fragmentation may provide to sexually harassed workers as compared to the barriers it creates. Finally, both in Québec and Australia, legislative reform aimed at reducing legal complexity has simultaneously increased it. To prevent such “rebound” complexity, initiatives designed to reduce complexity must be examined with respect to the scope of the legislation as well as from the perspective of subject matter

The Working Sovereign: Labour and Democratic Citizenship by Axel Honneth, Translated by Daniel Steuer, Polity Press, 2024

IN THE WORKING SOVEREIGN: Labour and Democratic Citizenship, Axel Honneth reflects on the importance of labour in democratic life. Honneth rescues a lost tradition, and I believe this work will be very relevant to labour law