Reproducing crises: Understanding the role of law in the COVID-19 global pandemic

Governmental responses to the COVID-19 global pandemic have generated numerous constitutionals, policy, legal, and political-economic debates. Scholarly engagements with the sociolegal and policy consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been dominated by discussion on the role of emergency powers, the suspension of individual civil liberties, the suspension of economic rules in order to guarantee economic survival, and social regulation of public spaces and of workplaces. This paper aims to explore how a critical sociolegal scholarship can contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of the role of law in creating the unequal conditions that propitiated the COVID-19 pandemic and that might enable further crises. This introduction offers a roadmap for theorizing the limits of law, the operationalization of emergency powers and the different policies implemented by global south and north countries in response to the pandemic. This introduction is structured as follow: (1) provides a general overview of the law and society tradition and its engagement with the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) engages with three key consequences of the pandemic, labor, and the lockdown; colonial implications; and the limits of law; (3) introduces the papers in this special issue; (4) sketches a proposal for the critical sociolegal scholarship of law and crises.     

劳动领域新法对企业用工的影响

《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》、《中华人民共和国就业促进法》、《劳动争议调解仲裁法》以及劳动社会保障部有关规章（以下概称为“新法”）的颁布和实施，是中国劳动和社会保障法制建设中一个重要里程碑，标志着劳动用工制度新时期的到来。在新法加强对劳动者保护的形势下。用人单位应积极适应新法，改善劳动用工管理，合理地避免用工风险、节约用工成本和避免违法成本。     

农民平等就业权在《就业促进法》中的缺陷与完善

平等就业权是指劳动者依法享有平等就业机会及其排除各种就业歧视的权利,它既是生存权的延伸和具体化,也是劳动权体系的起点和基础。对农民平等就业权进行立法保护,既有可靠的宪法依据和坚实的理论基础,也有十分重要的现实意义。尽管我国《就业促进法》首次规定了农民平等就业权,但它在具体保护方面仍然存在诸多缺陷,促进就业的有关规定没有涵盖农村劳动者;反就业歧视的规定缺漏较多、可操作性差;法律责任的规定不完备、不匹配。为了有效保护农民平等就业权,必须全面贯彻城乡平等就业制度,进一步完善反就业歧视制度和法律责任制度。     

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Intimate Partner Violence Advocates and Agencies

Relatively few studies have considered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intimate partner violence (IPV) advocates or the agencies where they work. In this study, based on United States IPV advocates’ experiences working with survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted interviews to explore: 1) personal challenges and resilience working as IPV advocates during the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) how agencies adapted to the pandemic to support IPV survivors and advocates; and 3) specific needs and challenges of culturally-specific agencies. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 53 IPV advocates from June to November 2020. Participants were included if they worked directly with survivors, identified as an IPV advocate, worked at a US-based agency, and spoke and understood English. We created a sampling matrix to ensure adequate representation from IPV advocates serving survivors from communities which have been marginalized. Interviews were conducted through a virtual platform by a trained member of the research team. We used an inductive thematic analysis approach, with weekly coding meetings to resolve discrepancies in coding. Five themes emerged from the data: 1) IPV advocates described how working as an IPV advocate during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted them personally; 2) agencies developed new methods of addressing IPV advocates’ needs; 3) agencies developed new solutions to address pandemic-related client needs; 4) transitioning advocacy work to virtual formats created challenges but also opportunities and; 5) pandemic limitations and impacts compounded pre-pandemic challenges for culturally specific agencies. IPV advocates are frontline workers who have played essential roles in adjusting services to meet survivor needs during the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously coping with pandemic impacts on themselves and their agencies. Developing inter-agency collaborations and promoting advocates’ safety and wellbeing during future public health crises will help support IPV survivors.

     

Digital Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities in China Under COVID-19: How Far Has China Come?

This article reviews social regulatory and redistributive policies in China that aim at fostering digital inclusion of persons with disabilities. We examine the emerging Chinese policies and how China has responded to the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on digital inclusion in terms of redistribution, market regulation, involvement of persons with disabilities and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs), and awareness-raising campaigns. The policy review demonstrates that the Chinese policy framework contains a few redistributive initiatives, for example, cash transfer programs, and free distribution of information and communications technology (ICT). These have the potential to increase the uptake of ICT among persons with disabilities. The Chinese policy framework also includes provisions to ensure consultation with individual persons with disabilities and DPOs in the deliberation and implementation of ICT accessibility policies. While China has initiated awareness-raising campaigns among market actors about the importance of digital inclusion, so far, the Chinese government has adopted little legal regulation of the market to foster accessibility to ICT. The article thus argues that some of the limitations may be due to the way state–market relations have developed since the economy opened up in 1978. Apart from the growing benefits of several cash transfer programs, we have not seen major changes or adjustments to the current policy framework during the efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on digital inclusion.     

互联网平台企业劳动用工策略的博弈分析

互联网平台企业中多元化的用工方式和灵活自主的用工制度强力冲击着传统劳动关系的边界,其便利的监管手段和大数据分析功能在某种程度上进一步加剧企业与劳动者地位不对等的程度,致使企业与劳动者关系不和谐、平台劳动者的身份难以明晰、劳动者的合法权益也未能得到有效的保护。目前司法实践、管理学界在保护平台劳动者的合法劳动权益、互联网平台企业与平台劳动者的关系类型及互联网平台企业的用工策略选择等问题上均未有定论。本文通过文献梳理总结出互联网平台企业和平台劳动者之间存在的劳动关系和劳务合作关系,并从合同法角度加以佐证。在此基础上构建企业与劳动者博弈收益分析模型,以及二者在劳动、劳务合作关系下的演化博弈模型和政府介入的有限博弈模型,发现互联网平台企业与平台劳动者的具体收益取决于双方的关系类型和相关参数的变化。     

论劳动者隐私权的法律保护:一个分析框架

以民法为中心的隐私权立法不足以保护劳动者,应构建契合劳动法理念的隐私权保护制度。劳动关系的从属性限制了劳动者隐私权受保护的范围和程度,同时也对雇主提出保护劳动者隐私权的要求。保护劳动者隐私权必须对各种社会利益及其相对重要性进行分析,核心在于实现雇主利益与劳动者隐私权的平衡,其一般标准可以区分为四项原则:职业区分原则;利益衡量原则;最少损害原则;合法限制与合意限制原则。     

二元结构下“农民工”劳动权之一元法律保护:从身份到契约

本文试图分析我国二元经济结构下农民工劳动权利现状,说明二元经济结构不必然导致二元劳动力市场,也不必然导致农民工处于低端的第二劳动力市场。并通过分析现行理论、制度的弊端,指出对农民工劳动权进行二元法律保护是一个错误的继续。现行法律设置、法律执行和政府角色错位才是导致农民工劳动权受损的原因。因而,必须澄清劳动关系理论,实现对农民工"从身份到契约"的一元法律保护。     

平台用工劳动权益保护的立法进路

我国互联网平台工人数量多达数千万,且增长迅速。平台工人面临身份不明确、工作时间长、收入不稳定、职业伤害保障缺失、算法运行不合理等突出问题。由于平台用工的特殊性,现有劳动法及其司法实践难以为平台工人提供有效保护。近年来,越来越多的国家,包括美国、法国、意大利等对平台工人进行了专门立法。我国有必要出台平台工人权益保护专门立法。平台工人权益保护立法的基本思路是确保符合"劳动者"标准的工人得到劳动法保护,并为一般平台工人提供基本劳动权益保障。立法应通过劳动关系举证责任转移规则,使平台工人身份得到正确归类。平台工人的基本权益内容应根据所有工人应享有的基本权益、平台用工的灵活性以及平台主要依靠算法运行的特点而设计,应赋予平台工人平等就业、职业安全卫生、工资、工时、加入工会和集体协商等方面的权利,以及与算法相关的权利。     

The Principle of Proportionality: Summary and Consensus in the 6th International Conference on Human Rights Protection Under Pandemic Prevention and Control,Beijing (China) 2020

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s regularized pandemic prevention and control, leading legal scholars from China, North America, and Eurasia participated in The 6th International Conference on Human Rights Protection under Pandemic Prevention and Control. Participants engaged in fruitful discussions on the normative necessity and practical relevance of the principle of proportionality in justifying their current governments’ anti-pandemic measures. Focusing on pandemic-related human rights conditions and rule of law challenges in global contexts, this article summarizes the participating scholars’ speeches through the integrated lens of human rights and the jurisprudence of health law in the COVID-19 containment phase. Speeches can be divided into six topical dimensions, involving normative utility, governance logic, reasonable limits, constitutional criteria, viable approaches, and post-pandemic challenges with respect to the principle of proportionality. To provide a more policy-relevant and theoretically sound framework for a community of common health for mankind, this article succinctly concludes with a series of overlapping consensus on the application of the principle of proportionality in the fight against the pandemic. This consensus, tentatively named the “Renmin Human Rights Consensus,” builds on five interrelated elements and generates five human rights assertions and a series of specific principles of health law.     

农民工权利司法救济路径探析

当前,我国农民工权利的保护仍存在诸多问题,各种歧视、克扣、剥夺农民工应得权益的现象依然普遍存在,通过法律路径保护农民工权利已变得刻不容缓,而司法救济又是其中最权威、最有效的一种路径。在司法救济方面一是要建立完善的民事诉讼机制,二是要构建健全的劳动争议处理模式,三是要建立完善的诉费救助制度,四是要建立完善的法律援助机制,以期农民工权利受损时能得到及时有效的救济。     

劳动权保障与制度重构——以“农民工”为视角

劳动权是我国宪法赋予劳动者的一项基本权利。在改革和发展背景下,重新定位并依法确立“农民工”劳动权主体地位既是切实保障他们利益的前提条件,也是他们公平分享改革发展成果的重要依据。应当依法确立“农民工”平等的劳动者身份。劳动权的实现主要有赖于政府法治,具体路径选择应当是从立法、执法与司法层面重构劳动权保障法律制度,以规制“失范”的“农民工”劳动权保障制度,依法切实保障“农民工”各项劳动权利。     

Identifying and Responding to the Complex Needs of Domestic Violence Housing Practitioners at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The social, financial, and emotional repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many organizations that support survivors of intimate partner violence questioning how to maintain core services while addressing compounding individual, organizational, and public health issues. Stay-at-home orders and other COVID-19 mitigation strategies have resulted in reduced shelter availability and increased intimate partner violence rates. Coupled with the economic impact of the pandemic, these factors have threatened financial and housing stability. To better understand these challenges and provide immediate support, The National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH) co-hosted a peer support call to provide a virtual platform for practitioners to ask questions, discuss challenges, and share strategies for quality service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 800 practitioners from across the United States participated in the NASH call, most of whom were advocates, program directors, and managers. NASH gathered data on practitioners’ needs from a brief survey from the registration form analyzed using conventional inductive content analysis. Practitioners’ primary concerns were situated within eight questions, which we categorized into four meta-categories: (1) managing residential housing programs; (2) getting survivors materials resources; (3) keeping staff safe; and (4) maintaining organizational operations. The paper concludes with community-grounded and empirically supported practice recommendations aligned with practitioners’ expressed needs.

     

新生代农民工就业存在的问题及其对策

作为城市化进程中的特殊群体,新生代农民工已经成为我国经济社会建设中的主力军.本文分析了新生代农民工在就业方面遇到的问题,并提出应从建立健全法律法规体系、完善和健全社会保障体系、改革户籍制度、搞好教育培训工作等方面来解决新生代农民工就业问题.     

离退休人员就业权法律保护问题研究

随着社会经济的迅速发展,我国劳动力人口年龄结构发生了较大变化,身体健康、精力充沛的离退休人员成为劳动力市场一支主要力量。但是,我国劳动力市场现行法律制度只是针对初次就业的劳动者,缺乏保护离退休人员就业权的相关法律规定,使离退休人员就业权受到侵害。因此,我国应构建保护离退休人员就业权的法律制度,使其在公正平等的前提下参与就业竞争,促进社会和谐、稳定、可持续发展。     

Hospitals’ Liabilities in Times of Pandemic: Recalibrating the Legal Obligation to Provide Personal Protective Equipment to Healthcare Workers

The Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated the global race for essential personal protective equipment in delivering critical patient care. This has created a dearth of personal protective equipment availability in some countries, which posed particular harm to frontline healthcare workers’ health and safety, with undesirable consequences to public health. Substantial discussions have been devoted to the imperative of providing adequate personal protective equipment to frontline healthcare workers. The specific legal obligations of hospitals towards healthcare workers in the pandemic context have so far escaped important scrutiny. This paper endeavours to examine this overlooked aspect in the light of legal actions brought by frontline healthcare workers against their employers arising from a shortage of personal protective equipment. By analysing the potential legal liabilities of hospitals, the paper sheds light on the interlinked attributes and factors in understanding hospitals’ obligations towards healthcare workers and how such duty can be justifiably recalibrated in times of pandemic.

     

On unobserved worker heterogeneity and employment protection

It has been claimed that employment protection aggravates problems of adverse selection if workers differ with respect to their productivity. Analyzing European and US labor law, we identify regulations which work in the opposite direction. Where employment protection legislation allows dismissals only for good cause and imposes social criteria upon the employer’s selection process in the event of redundancies, the average productivity of hireable workers is shown to improve. However, we find that the employers’ reduced freedom of choice more than offsets the productivity increase of newly hired workers and job creation is deterred by employment protection legislation. Nevertheless, low-productivity workers may favor the introduction of employment protection provisions.     

“Kill the chicken to scare the monkey”: Heavy penalties,excessive COVID-19 control mechanisms,and legal consciousness in China

This study analyses the legal consciousness of Chinese citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic when the authoritarian state invoked heavy penalties to deter noncompliance with its excessive COVID-19 restrictions. China used the approach of “killing the chicken to scare the monkey,” publicly punishing those who violated restrictions in order to deter noncompliance. This article explains why ordinary citizens supported this selective application of the law, as well as how the possibility of being the “chicken” contributed to their compliance (or noncompliance) with excessive COVID-19 restrictions. It suggests that the uncertainty and unpredictability of law in the authoritarian state bred fear, which then led to compliance, regardless of the lack of procedural fairness. People's dissatisfaction with the rules, however, led them to tolerate and even support the noncompliance of people they trusted.     

论劳动关系与劳务关系

随着市场经济的快速发展和劳动法制的不断完善,劳动力市场更加活跃,用人形式也更为灵活,劳动者与用人单位既可以建立劳动关系,也可以建立劳务关系。劳动关系与劳务关系都表现为一方提供劳动力,另一方支付劳动报酬,并经常交织在一起,实践中两者容易混淆,很难正确区分。但二者有着本质的不同,劳动关系是劳动者在用人单位从事劳动过程中发生的社会关系。劳务关系是指两个或两个以上的平等主体之间就劳务事项进行等价交换过程中形成的一种经济关系。二者在主体地位、表现形式、受国家干预程度、享受待遇等方面都具有本质的区别,只有认清二者的本质特征,才能正确适用法律,切实保障劳动者的合法权益。     

劳动者维权异常名录:价值考量与制度纠偏

为规制职场“碰瓷”式维权行为,一些地方建立了劳动者维权异常名录机制。从概念来看,“维权异常”并非严格意义上之法律术语,它与虚假诉讼、恶意诉讼存在交叉。该机制虽能在一定程度上遏制“职场碰瓷”、虚假诉讼等行为的发生,缓和仲裁机关、法院的压力,并有助于社会信用体系建设,但维权异常的认定及名录发布行为在法律属性上存疑,相关的惩戒措施存在损害劳动者提起争议处理权、就业权之隐忧,更不利于劳动者的个人信息保护与企业的自律合规管理。因此,制度未来改进应确立适格的权力主体,并引入主观目的要素综合判断劳动者是否构成维权异常,预采取的惩戒手段要符合比例原则之要求。此外,亦要改进相关配套制度,如注重劳动争议纠纷的源头治理,建立健全劳动仲裁与诉讼的收费制度。