Those of you who know me, know that I’ve been working on a new book called The Law of Work. It will be published by Emond Montgomery. Below is a copy of the cover for the first three parts of the book.
Can I say that ‘The Law of Work’ is a lot of work! The book is in four parts. The first part is a framing section that develops a new way of organizing the material to enable us to study and understand the legal rules in their broader social, economic, political, and cultural context. I’m excited about this part.
(1) Themes, Frameworks, and Perspectives
- Chapter 1: The Law of Work in a Nutshell
- Chapter 2: A Framework for Studying the Law of Work
- Chapter 3: Key Perspectives on the Law of Work
- Chapter 4: The Law of What? Work, Employment, and Everything In Between
The remaining three parts examine each of the ‘three regimes of the law of work’:
(1) The Common Law of Employment
(2) The Regulation of Work
(3) Collective Bargaining Law
The book is different than any other on the market. It is written in plain English, with some humour and assuming no background legal training. In fact, the main target audience are the thousands of students being taught courses that engage the law of work outside of law schools, in undergraduate and graduate studies in business, labour studies and industrial relations, legal studies, and human resource management, among other fields. The number of students who learn about labour and employment law outside of law schools far, far exceeds the number who take courses in these subjects in law schools in Canada. However, the book also has a depth of legal information, including in detailed and thorough endnotes for practicing lawyers and academics teaching law students. Readers will be introduced to the leading decisions, and the big thinkers and policy debates in the field.
An exciting feature of the book will be it’s interconnectivity to this Law of Work blog, the ability to get the entire four part book, or to modules made up of part of the book. I am also writing the book with the electronic version in mind for all of us who now read on our electronic devices and computers. That version will enable readers to link directly to case law, stories, and other content from the blog. An instructor teaching Employment Law might only be interested in Parts I to III, but not Part IV on Collective Bargaining Law, but someone teaching Labour Law or Industrial Relations or other courses involving labour relations issues might be interested in Part I, Part II, and Part IV, but not very much of the content on the Common Law Regime.
The plan now is to release Parts I to III early in 2015. Part IV (Collective Bargaining Law) will follow afterwards. I’ll keep you posted.