Human rights have taken on a central role in labour law debates in the context of economic globalisation and the decline of union power. This module investigates the implications and the potential of the trend to frame the issues arising between employers and workers in terms of human rights.

The rights concerned might be constitutional rights or rights found in regional or international declarations of human rights.

The module is not limited to a particular jurisdiction, but views the trend from a theoretical, comparative and international perspective. The module examines this approach in relation to some illustrative rights e.g. trade union rights, the right to work, the prohibition of slavery and servitude, the right to privacy, freedom of religion.

The cases have been selected as illustrations of issues that arise at work and how attempts to analyse them in terms of rights have been resolved (including, commonly, the rejection or suppression of a rights discourse). The module also includes readings that critically examine the human rights approach to labour law from policy and philosophical perspectives.

Early Modern History|History|History of Science and Medicine|Sociology of Science and Technology

What does the history of science look like beyond Europe? This module explores different forms and approaches to natural knowledge in a variety of periods and...

What does the history of science look like beyond Europe? This module explores different forms and approaches to natural knowledge in a variety of periods and global contexts. We examine the “epistemology of the hunt” in pre-colonial Zimbabwe; medicine in the medieval Islamic hospital; the forging together of crafts and cosmology in Ming China; practical knowledge in seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul; the changing nature of South American science in the early modern period; and the role of go-betweens in making scientific knowledge in India; and Russian and Japanese voyages of exploration in the nineteenth century. The course uses different histories to offer fresh perspectives on what we understand by ‘science’ and ‘technology’ and examines different models of how scientific knowledge is made and circulates around the world.