Employment Law

No prerequisites.

8-hour take-home examination at end of course.

No other writing required.

This is a course about legal regulation of the employment relationship and workplace conditions. It covers major legal issues about work, except issues that involve unions and thus are considered in courses on "labor law" rather than "employment law." (However, there is some discussion of unions, where collective bargaining intersects with employment law.)

The course pays particular attention to structural racism; legal changes spurred by the Covid crisis, including the surge in remote work; sexual harassment in the #MeToo era; and electronic surveillance in the workplace.

Among the substantive issues to be considered are discrimination and harassment on grounds of race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity; regulation of wages; arbitrary firing; whistle-blowing; non-compete agreements; unemployment insurance; employee use of email and the internet; employee privacy; electronic surveillance of on-site and remote workers; immigrant work visas and penalties; regulatory methods of job creation; and other topics.

The course asks whether employment law is systemically related to inequality in incomes and wealth, and to the current crisis in employment. The course considers transformations in workplace and corporate organization -- such as out-sourcing, temporary work, mass layoffs, and rapid reconfiguration of firms structures. It also considers the impact of the global economy on U.S. employment relations.

The course covers legal issues faced both by by the core workforce and by especially vulnerable workers. The former category includes workers in stable jobs, middle- and high-wage workers, middle managers, executives, and professionals, with a special focus on legal professionals. The latter category includes low-wage workers, undocumented immigrants, domestic (household) workers, prison laborers, agricultural workers, welfare recipients, student workers, child laborers; victims of human trafficking; sex workers, and others.