Human Rights and European Politics: The Legal - Political Status of Workers in the European Community

Human Rights and European Politics: The Legal - Political Status of Workers in the European Community

The free movement of labour will be one of the key elements of the S8ingle Market. One would therefore expect that efforst would have been made to harmonise social policies, especially on the legal status of workers. But the existing EC Treaty contains no provision for this and The Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers of 1989 fails to fill the gap. The Charter delegates the socio-political responsiblity in almost all points to the Member States. Yet the consititutions of most refer only to general human rights. In practice, most of the Member States place the greatest relevance on civil and political human rights. The author of this volume, however, stresses the importance of economic and social human rights which, like human rights in general, have their roots in the Enlightenment, especially in the works of montesquieu, Adam Smith and Kant. The author examines how these thinkers' ideas on such topics have been neglected since the nineteenth century argues tht it is time to revive them. He He discusses such hotly debated issues as ownership of the product of labour, workers' co-determination, strikes andlockouts in the light of these ideas. He concludes that it is vital for the Single Market to extend human rights to the social economic spheres, going beyond the terms of the Maastricht Treaty.

Fabricius, Fritz

BERG

SR E 26