American versus French labor and employment law: a critical review of the analysis of employment relationship in contract economic theories

Virgile Chassagnon and Bernard Baudry ()
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Bernard Baudry: TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Despite the numerous economic works on the nature of the firm, only a few studies have clearly taken into account the legal and institutional contexts of the employer-employee relationship. This paper aims at comparing the regulation rules of the employment relationship advocated by contract economic theories to the American and French labor laws in both a positive and normative perspective. From a positive perspective, the contract approaches to the firm – transaction cost economics, the nexus of contracts theory and the modern theory of property rights – are similar to the tradition of American labor law. However, from a normative point of view, it appears that if contract economic theories seem to be partially in line with certain principles of the French labor law, there is a strong inconsistency between these approaches and the role that the French legal system gives to the State and to the law courts (and judges).

Keywords: Contract economic theories; employment relationship; American labor law; French labor law; contractual freedom; employers' powers; collective negotiation; disputes settlement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-hpe
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Working Paper: American versus French labor and employment law: a critical review of the analysis of employment relationship in contract economic theories (2016)
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