Asian Comparative Labor Law

This course will examine international and comparative labor law issues facing the East Asian countries of China, Japan, and Korea, as well as the practical issues confronting American lawyers who will use labor in those countries as they do business in and with them. The course covers the effects of globalization on FDI, trade, migrant workers, and the increasingly global practice of lawyers. It puts this in the context of international players (MNCs like Wal-Mart, ILO, and ITUC) and discusses the application and effects of international labor standards, domestic, and foreign labor laws within domestic legal systems. It introduces comparative law systems and biases. The course then examines the legal systems of China, Japan, and Korea through the perspective of labor law regulation. This is followed by comparisons of these three on selected topics such as gender discrimination, ADR, role of trade unions, etc.