November 10, 2014 - McGill University, Faculty of Law 

The LLDRL and Oppenheimer Chair jointly organized a lecture by Gabriela Medici on the legislative precariousness of domestic care work in Switzerland. Medici was then a D.C.L. candidate at McGill University's Faculty of Law and member of the LLDRL.

Her presentation related the growing international discourse on the impact of human rights on labour law to the current Swiss constitutional and labour regulatory framework for domestic workers. Over the past years, the discursive recognition of core labour rights in the form of positive state obligations to regulate and implement traditional civil rights guarantees, procedural guarantees, and the prohibition of discrimination has grown. During the lecture, Medici argued that, while this development has helped to counterbalance the legislative precariousness of migrant caregivers in Swiss households, the safeguarding of core labour rights through positive state obligations has inherent limitations.

October 27, 2014 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

The LLDRL and Oppenheimer Chair jointly organized a lecture by Bethany Hastie, then-D.C.L. candidate at McGill University's Faculty of Law, on migrant labour and the ins and outs of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Programs. 

This presentation engaged in a critical inquiry of the TFWPs, examining how the regulatory structure of these Programs contributes to a state of unfreedom for migrant workers. The regulatory structure of the TFWPs and specific measures under the programs which produce conditions of unfreedom for migrant workers were examined, including: employer-specific work permit; limits on participation and time in Canada; lack of access to permanent residency; jurisdictional limitations. Ultimately, this presentation argued that the regulatory regime governing the TFWPs operates largely at the expense of migrant workers’ rights, contributes to precariousness, and fails to live up to the promise of the “triple win” scenario.

March 31, 2014 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

The LLDRL, in collaboration with the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, presented a talk by Dzodzi Tsikata, O’Brien Fellow in Residence. During the conference, Professor Tsikata presented her research findings, namely the difficulty of regulating domestic work in Ghana on account of the nature of domestic work, the location of its workplace (the home), the limitations of the existing institutional regime for domestic work, the extensive informalization of work in Ghana, and of addressing these deficits through specific regulations, including ILO Convention 189. 

November 22-23, 2013 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Faculty of Law of McGill University presented a Special Forum on Race, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Discrimination in North America at McGill University's Faculty of Law. The event was chaired by Commissioner José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez (IACHR Chair), Commissioner Rose-Marie Belle Antoine (Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons of African Descent and Against Racial Discrimination) and Commissioner Dinah Shelton (Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).

Panelists presented on topics such as race and the criminal justice system, discrimination against Indigenous peoples in North America, race and discrimination in matters of health, housing and education, race discrimination in the workplace, and race and religious accommodation in the workplace.

This event was supported by the Faculty of Law and the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory.

The Special Forum's full bilingual programme is available here.

June 13-15, 2013 - University Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Organized by an international committee constituted of leading labour law scholars, including Professor Adelle Blackett, the Inaugural Conference provided hundreds of labour law scholars the opportunity to share their research on topics such as austerity and labour law (with a special focus on the Spanish context), the "North-South" challenge to Transnational Labour Law, social rights and the market and the frontiers of workplace human rights. LLDRL members Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Professor Diamond Ashiagbor, Ms. Anne Trebilcock and Professor Adelle Blackett presented during this conference. 

The LLDRL is a founding member of the LLRN and financed this initiative. 

The inaugural conference's full programme is available here.

March 28, 2012 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

In March 2012, the LLDRL, in collaboration with CRIMT and the McGill University Legal Theory Workshop, hosted a research workshop with leading Labour Law Professor Guy Davidov. Professor Davidod is the Elias Lieberman Chair in Labour Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Founding Chair of the Labour Law Research Network and the Editor-In-Chief of the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations.

March 16-17, 2012 - McGill University, Faculty of Law 

After her long and distinguished career, Justice Westmoreland-Traoré retired in 2012. To mark this milestone, the LLDRL, in partnership with the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and McGill University's Faculty of Law, organized a two-day conference in March 2012 to honour and celebrate her contributions. During the conference, Justice Westmoreland-Traoré reflected on critical themes regarding social and transformative justice, law, equality, and the administration of justice in racialized communities. This event was made possible thanks to generous contributions from the Aisenstadt Equality and Community Initiative (McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism) and the Law ’63 Fund.

The full programme of panel conferences is available here.

March 30, 2011 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

The LLDRL hosted a luncheon with Patrick Carrière, distinguished consultant on labour law and former Senior Legal Officer of the Freedom of Association branch at the International Labour Office in Geneva. The luncheon provided students, practitioners, and academics with a rare opportunity to dialogue with a former leading ILO official about the organization's evolution, its current politics, and future prospects. The conference, organized in partnership with CRIMT and McGill University's Faculty of Law, was highlighted by M. Carrière's rich anecdotal experience on a range of critical labour issues such as the freedom of association and child labour.

March 29, 2010 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

The LLDRL, in collaboration with CRIMT and McGill University's Faculty of Law, organized an international seminar entitled "Regulating Decent Work for Domestic Workers." The conference brought together international and interdisciplinary researchers and specialists in the area of domestic labour to reflect on aspects of the domestic economy and the governance of paid labour. It addressed questions related to the regulation of domestic labour in family settings, labour inspections in family settings, unpaid labour, domestic worker agencies and informal labour. The participants also discussed legislation, legal provisions, and their impacts in various countries (India, Brazil, Southeast Asia), as well as the Canadian experience. 

The event's programme is available here.

June 28, 2010 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

Organized by the Hans & Tamar Oppenhemier Chair in Public International Law in collaboration with the LLDRL, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, and the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, the lecture provided twelve doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in international law the opportunity to present and discuss their research ideas with fellow researchers and professors from the Faculty. The aim of the first seminar was to advance the understanding of theoretical and practical dimensions of the interaction between international treaty law, international customary law, and other international obligations with the domestic legal order, with due regard to the constitutional setting in federal and unitary states.

December 2, 2009 - McGill University, Faculty of Law

Organized in collaboration with the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), the Law 77' Project Fund, and the Faculty of Law at McGill University, this lecture by the late Sir Bob Hepple focused on the European financial crisis and labour law. The extraordinary life of Sir Bob Hepple, including his role in defending Nelson Mandela, his activism, and important legacy for labour law and human rights, was summarized in this obituary by Catherine Barnard and Simon Deakin in The Guardian. 

A recording of the conference can be found here.