Leggett, Christopher (2012) Book review of "International employment and labour laws" by Jean-Michel Servais, Kluwer Law International. E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies, 1 (1-2). pp. 153-156.

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Abstract

[Extract] The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was the only agency of the League of Nations, formed in 1919 after the First World War, to continue as an agency of the United Nations, after the Second World War. The ILO's webpage 'How the ILO works' specifies its purposes and maps the formal organisation through which it works: it is "responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labour standards" which are set by the annual International Labour Conference, and its main aims are "to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues"^1, but offers little about how it works.

The ILO is distinguished by its tripartite structure, to reflect the views of what today are called "the social partners", its executive is the Governing Body and its administrative headquarters is the International Labour Office in Geneva, and to some extent this structure is iterated at the regional level. Whether ratified or not, it is the ILO's conventions that are the main (but not the only) source of international labour law, the subject of Servais' 2011 monograph, International Employment and Labour Law which offers an informed insight into the role of the ILO in the generation, implementation and supervision of international labour standards and its attempts today to balance economic progress with social justice.

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