The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is the most developed and comprehensive legally binding human rights instrument in the social field of the European Union. It is becoming increasingly important and is the first instrument that includes both civil and political rights on one hand and social rights on the other. Despite this, the Court of Justice of the European Union has only rarely dealt with fundamental social rights. In this context, employment rights need to be examined in this new rights framework. Following on from previous volumes setting out links between European labour law and fundamental social rights (as enshrined in relevant UN, ILO and Council of Europe instruments), in this book the ETUI Transnational Trade Union Rights (TTUR) Expert Network examines the justiciability of social rights and critically analyses the effectiveness of those rights embodied in the EU Charter. Thus, this book completes the trilogy of ETUI TTUR books on fundamental social rights at European level following the publication, also by Hart Publishing, of The European Convention of Human Rights and the Employment Relation (2013) and The European Social Charter and the Employment Relation (2017).

This book analyses the most important problems and challenges of the current labour market from the point of view of the balance between the parties of the employment contract. The contributions here are related to various pressing topics, including, for example, the future of work and worker protection on an international level against the strengthening of employers’ powers. In addition, the nature and limits of employers’ power, non-competition contractual clauses and workers’ rights in the face of new communication and information technologies are also discussed. The contributors are drawn from several countries, such as Portugal, Spain, Bolivia, Italy, México and Switzerland. The book will appeal to lawyers, legal experts, human resources experts, economist, judges, academia, and staff from companies and trade unions, and employers’ representation. The volume features insights and contributions in different languages, with chapters in Spanish (12), English (4) and Portuguese (5).

This is the conference book for the XIV European Regional Congress of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law, dedicated to the interactions between social law and other areas of law. In recent years, labour law and social security law have been subject to various reforms and developments. Social law is however not an isolated domain but rather interacts with other fields, often even functioning as a guide or giving direction to those lost at sea. In other words: serving as a lighthouse. The key aspect addressed in this book is the existence of a connection between social law sensu stricto (labour law and social security law) and other areas of law. Pursuing an inter- and multidisciplinary approach, it gathers contributions on topical and challenging issues in four broad areas: 1. Basic and fundamental principles of European social law 2. The future in the light of the past 3. The impact of regionalisation 4. Enforcement in social law In turn, various developments can be identified in connection with these topics: the emergence of social criminal law is creating new overlaps between social and criminal law; the growing number of administrative law sanctions offers new insights into and connections between social security law and administrative law; the increasing similarity of employment in the public and private sectors raises questions about the applicability of administrative law in labour law relations; the relation between the ECHR and the articles of the Constitution opens up new perspectives on the constitutional interpretation of freedoms and on the interaction between human rights, constitutional law and social law; and lastly, there is a growing influence of EU law and international treaty law (concerning trade) on social law. Can we, by looking at these developments, draw certain conclusions at a different and innovative level? The contributions were selected by an international working group of distinguished scholars from across Europe.

La obra que el lector tiene en sus manos está dedicada al estudio de la consolidación de la Carta de Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión Europea, una vez que el texto ha cumplido los veinte años desde su proclamación (Niza, 2000) y transcurridos ya los primeros diez años desde que, con la entrada en vigor del Tratado de Lisboa (2009), la Carta deviniera un texto jurídicamente vinculante (tanto para las instituciones de la UE como para los Estados miembros cuando aplican Derecho de la Unión), con el mismo valor jurídico que los Tratados de la Unión. El libro analiza la jurisprudencia del Tribunal de Justicia sobre la CDFUE, máximo garante de su correcta interpretación y aplicación, examina la aplicación de la misma por los tribunales de los Estados miembros, analizando en particular los casos de Francia, Italia, Reino Unido y España, y estudia, asimismo, los esfuerzos para su consolidación realizados por la Agencia de Derechos Fundamentales de la UE. Finalmente, se recogen varios trabajos que analizan determinados derechos y libertades incorporados de forma novedosa en la Carta (derecho a la vida familiar, protección de datos personales, protección de los consumidores, derecho a la tutela judicial y al juez imparcial) y que, además de haber tenido un importante desarrollo normativo y jurisprudencial, suscitan cuestiones de actualidad.

Se presenta una reflexión profunda de cinco especialistas, pero con un enfoque al tiempo teórico y práctico. En el plano científico, se analiza la vigencia de la democracia social española a la luz de las exigencias derivadas de nuestra integración europea. Desde una perspectiva más pragmática, se reflexiona con todo rigor sobre las posibilidades de justiciabilidad y efectiva defensa en España de los derechos sociales fundamentales con apoyo en la jurisprudencia social del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea, así como de la jurisprudencia del Comité Europeo de Derechos Sociales, prácticamente desconocida en nuestro país.