Home / Vol.14, n°2 / International Labour Regulation from 1998 to 2008: A Normative El Dorado or and Interpretative Desert?

Fundamental principles and rights at work, formally recognised by the international community since the adoption of the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), have experienced an unexpected success over the last decade. They have been integrated in various regulatory instruments adopted by a number of international organisations and key actors from the international civil society. They are now frequently mentioned in trade agreements concluded between states, in codes of conduct adopted unilaterally by multinational enterprises and in other negotiated private regulatory instruments, such as international framework agreements promoted by Global Union Federations. While the wide dissemination and use of fundamental principles and rights at work outside the realm of the ILO is of importance, at least on a theoretical level, it nevertheless raises some difficulties on a practical level. International actors have clearly privileged the adoption non-binding instruments – referred to as soft law – instead of more traditional forms of law-making in the field of international labour law, such as conventions addressed to sovereign states. In their substance and their form, whether they are of public or private origin, complemented or not by implementation mechanisms, the normative trajectories put forward by international actors now often embrace a philosophy of softness. But whether this trend is coupled with the improvement of workers' rights on the ground is questionable. In addition, the plurality of follow-up mechanisms and the diversity of actors in charge of implementing fundamental principles and rights at work contribute to the production of interpretations that might be conflicting. Which one will prevail and who will have the power to address this question in a decentralised context of implementation? It seems that there might be a real danger of implosion of international labour law. In this context, one might question whether the adoption of a new soft law instrument by the ILO, the 2008 ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, can give this organisation the leadership needed in the interpretation of fundamental principal and rights at work, interpretation that remains, for now, in the hands of a plurality of global and national actors.