Normative Structures of Industrial Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries – Introduction and Outline of Problems

Abstract

Labour law is more than just the sum of state legal norms. It also includes private rules set by companies, agreements between employers and employees, technical standards, established practices, fundamental ideas of fairness in labour relations, etc. These norms cannot be found in legal codes. They are scattered in archives, industry magazines, separate publications, etc. In many cases, they can only be identified by examining the historical practice of working life. Labour law is therefore not only the domain of lawyers; economic and social historians can also contribute to reconstructing the normative order of the world of work. The Focus »Normative Structures of Industrial Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries«, which this text introduces, is an attempt to bring together the research interests of social and economic historians with those of legal historians in order to enrich the perspective of legal history.