Labor in Hard Times - Workers'' Legal Mobilization At the European Court of Human Rights

Labor in Hard Times examines how organized labor in Turkey and the United Kingdom turned to international human rights law in response to domestic repression and neoliberal restructuring. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a unique database of labor rights cases, the book traces how workers used litigation at the European Court of Human Rights not just to win legal victories, but to build political pressure, assert legitimacy, and reclaim space for collective action. Focusing on public sector unionists in Turkey and blacklisted construction workers in the UK, it offers a rare view of how grassroots activists and lawyers mobilized international law as a tactical resource: Workers engaged rights discourse strategically to pursue concrete goals, while remaining rooted in class-based solidarity. With vivid case studies, this book speaks to readers interested in international courts, human rights, and the evolving strategies of labor movements in an era of democratic backsliding and global inequality.

List of contents

1. Introduction; 2. Theorizing workers' legal mobilization at the international level; Part I. Why Did Workers Turn to the European Court of Human Rights?: 3. Domestic drivers of human rights litigation: unraveling trade union power under two variants of neoliberalism; 4. A new avenue for workers at the international level: The European Court of Human Rights; 5. Lawyers as strategists: between the local and the international; Part II. What is the Impact of Litigation at The European Court of Human Rights?; 6. Direct remedies: limits of compliance with European Court of Human Rights rulings; 7. On-stage and off-stage mobilization: blacklisted workers in the United Kingdom; 8. Mobilizing to unionize: public sector workers in Turkey; Chapter 9. Litigating in Hard times: fragile gains, enduring struggles; Appendix I. Strasbourg Labor Cases Database (StrasLab); Appendix II. Qualitative data.

Product details

• Authors: Filiz Kahraman, Filiz (University of Toronto) Kahraman
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 28.02.2026
• EAN: 9781009732369
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0973236-9
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law; LAW / General, Turkey, Trade Unions, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Jurisprudence & general issues, Council of Europe, Human rights, civil rights, Political, Socio-Economic & Strategic Groupings, Employment & Labour Law, Jurisprudence and general issues, Law and society, sociology of law, Employment and labour law: general, International law: courts and procedures, International courts & procedures, Türkiye / Turkey