Understanding Social Security Law deals with key elements of social security in its various facets, both private and public measures. Social security is defined and different elements such as social insurance, social assistance, pensions and unemployment insurance are set out. Relevant case law is explained for the reader. Selected comparative social security trends elsewhere, including developments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are also mentioned.

The book aims to present some relevant aspects of this growing area of the law and labour market policy in an accessible way. Key point summaries of law and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are covered to aid understanding.

The authors are highly regarded labour law practitioners and academics who have published extensively in this field.

This book examines an area of personal injuries law that has been largely neglected by other writers, but which is of vital importance in practical terms when establishing quantum of damages for personal injuries. It provides detailed coverage of the law as it works in practice, but also important insights into the underlying legal principles and policy. There is comprehensive analysis of the rules relating to the deduction of social security benefits, including the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997 and the new rules concerning recovery of NHS costs from insurers. The book also explains in detail how the deduction of private insurance payments, gifts and charitable payments, benefits relating to employment, benefits related to the cost of care, and benefits accruing to dependants all impact upon the awards made by the Courts.

The second edition of Child Law in South Africa provides insight into the profound impact of recent legislative changes and developments in the associated regulatory frameworks, the judicial interpretation of ground-breaking case law, and the latest research findings in child law in South Africa. The work that has been done at an international level is also incorporated as far as possible within the confines of the topics addressed in this publication.

This new edition of Child Law in South Africa does not merely follow in the path of its predecessor: this publication includes 11 entirely new chapters and 11 ‘new’ authors – experts who did not contribute to the previous edition. Even the ‘revised’ chapters add value as they systematically and critically deal with new knowledge and enhance research.

Child Law in South Africa is written by 22 experts in the field, edited by Professor Trynie Boezaart, an internationally acknowledged researcher in child law, and independently peer-reviewed. The book reflects the enormous scope and dynamics involved in child law and is sure to encourage further debate and analysis.

Elgar Research Agendasoutline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are give n the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Forward-looking and innovative, Elgar Research Agendas are an essential resource for PhD students, scholars and anybody who wants to be at the forefront of research. This timely book utilises the specialised insights and experiences of those who have carried out research on different aspects of social welfare law and policy to construct an innovative post-Brexit and post-Covid 19 research agenda that identifies what needs to be studied and how this should be carried out. Embracing not only social welfare law but also social welfare policy, practice and impact, expert contributors consider major areas of non-economic law, such as asylum and immigration law, health law, social care law, social work and child welfare law, social security law, and issues involving social rights. Individual chapters cover branches of social welfare law, four areas of social welfare policy, four distinctive methodological approaches, and three contemporary developments. They reflect a wide-ranging set of substantive concerns and methodological approaches and, taken together, comprise a challenging but non-prescriptive research agenda. This Research Agenda will be a key resource for socio-legal researchers contemplating research on social welfare law and policy, as well as research councils, government departments and charitable bodies that fund research on social welfare law and policy.

Experiences of the struggle for housing, ignited by the lack of social and affordable housing, have led to the establishing of shared and self-managed housing areas. In such a context, it becomes crucially important to re-think the need to define common urban worlds "from below". Here, Penny Travlou and Stavros Stavridis trace contemporary practices of urban commoning through which people re-define housing economies. Connecting to a rich literature on the importance of commons and of practices of commoning for the creation of emancipated societies, the authors discuss whether housing struggles and co-habitation experiences may contribute in crucial ways to the development of a commoning culture. The authors explore a variety of urban contexts through global case studies from across the Global North and South, in search of concrete examples that illustrate the potentialities of urban commoning.

Over recent years, the inability of social security protection to reach workers without a formal employment contract has become an inconvenient reality in both the global north and south. This book explores how provisions for income security can be revised to effectively meet the needs of the labour force in varying economies. In developing economies, informal employment has traditionally accounted for a high proportion of overall employment and this trend looks set to continue. In the global north, the increasing use of flex-contracts and 'dependent self-employment' has led to a rise in the number of workers with limited income protection. An additional challenge for countries in both hemispheres is the rise of the 'gig' economy. This book is the first to open up a dialogue about social security coverage in the developed and developing world. Authors from both sides of the divide have contributed chapters and present a variety of insights, experiments and practices with the aim of identifying better ways to combat the growing social security challenge. Academic researchers with an interest in labour law and social policy will find this book to be an engaging source of innovative research. Practicing lawyers and policy makers will also benefit from the insights and examples provided from a number of different jurisdictions. ntributors include: C. Barnard, A. Blackham, E. Fourie, A. Govindjee, T. Gyulavari, D. Hofmeyr, L. Jianfei, A. Johansson Westregard, L. Lamarche, J. Li, J. Masabo, M. Olivier, P.A. Ortiz, A. Paz-Fuchs, M. Westerveld, M. Wynn

The book offers a comprehensive overview of social security in the Balkan states. Social security is presented from a broad perspective as a mechanism that addresses human needs, provides protection against social risks, reduces social tensions and secures peace. Various sectors of social policy, pension systems, health care systems, disability insurance, labor policy as well as social risks, such as poverty and unemployment, have been analyzed from historical, economic, political, sociological and security perspective. The book also offers recommendations for improving the level of social security in the region. Contributors are: Maja Bacovic, Agata Domachowska, Dorota Domalewska, Tomasz Ferfecki, Afet Mamuti, Katerina Mitevska Petrusheva, Natalija Perisic, Kire Sharlamanov, Katerina Veljanovska Blazhevska, and Marzena Zakowska.

This book addresses the different forms of austerity, contestation and resistance, in order to understand how they relate to one another and the impact they have on the democratic quality of public debates, the trust in public institutions and the legitimacy of law. Contestation of austerity includes not only traditional activism strategies such as human rights litigation and direct democracy instruments, but also new forms of collective action and collaborative resistance. Most importantly, many of the new anti-austerity initiatives also aim to renovate existing modes of democratic decision-making on the European, national, regional and local levels. The book focuses on different types of contesting austerity measures and the interaction between institutional and civil society actors. It will enhance understanding of how the various actors frame not only their goal but also the underlying social conflict to contest austerity and through which means they try to achieve political and legal changes. With 16 chapters written by contributors from Spain, Germany, Greece, Portugal and the UK, the book approaches 3 crucial areas of austerity policies: cuts in payment and pensions, labour law reform, and old and new poverty. In each field, the contributors analyse the processes of decision-making and contestation from 3 perspectives: institutions, democratic theory and societal responses.

Labour and social security law studies have addressed the topic of the decline of the standard employment relationship mainly from the point of view of the growing number of atypical relationships. Only a limited number of studies have examined the issue from the perspective of the differentiation between core and contingent work. Such an examination is necessary as the increase in contingent work leads to complicated legal questions which vary between European states depending on the type of contingent arrangements that have become most prevalent. This book analyses, using a comparative approach, these different types of contingency from a national and EU perspective touching on the work relationship from a labour as well as a social security point of view. The aim of the book is to identify and analyse those questions adopting an innovative approach and to put forward proposals for safeguarding social cohesion within undertakings and European society.

This book analyses the impact of European tax and benefit systems on incentives to create and take up jobs. European policymakers face tough choices as reforms to these systems are costly and recognising and understanding the complex trade-offs involved - a pre-condition to pushing the reform process forward - is the aim of this volume. The authors, experts in public and welfare economics, investigate the problems involved in re-designing tax and benefit systems in Europe, the cross-country spillovers of 'bad' domestic policies and the peer pressure from closer policy co-operation in EMU. They examine reforms in tax and welfare systems and suggest ways in which to improve their efficiency without undermining the equitable foundations of the European social model. While aiming at a high degree of generality, the analyses are rooted firmly in the experience of European countries and the conclusions are therefore all the more relevant and of interest to policymakers in Europe, as well as the rest of the world. The blend of theoretical and institutional analysis, policy suggestions and case studies of relevant European success stories will ensure this book appeals to policymakers and scholars of welfare, European and labour studies.

Whether or not we ever attain universal social justice, there can be little doubt that the international community has set meaningful standards, and that significant progress has been made over the last century. The leading standard-setter throughout this period has been the International Labour Organisation (ILO), with its nearly 200 conventions on labour law and social security law. Yet it is often asked: how effective are these standards? Do any ILO Member States actually offer (to quote the Philadelphia Declaration of the ILO Conference of 1944) social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care? Perhaps not, but some come close, thanks to the application of ILO standards. This much-needed volume is the first detailed analysis of the legal meaning of ILO conventions within the ratifying Member States. In unprecedented depth a panel of distinguished authorities explores the role of ILO conventions in preparing and amending national legislation, in parliamentary debate, and in national case law. For comparative purposes, five countries the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands - are studied in depth. Among the points of discussion that arise are the following: the social dumping that results from distortion of competition; the ILO's supervision procedures; protection of international migrant workers; temporary exceptions for developing countries; and the possibility of modernising texts of older conventions. A useful annex reprints the texts of the ILO Constitution and the so-called up-to-date conventions pertaining to social security which are currently being promoted for ratification by the ILO. At a time when the very meaning of such terms as work and social security is being challenged by prevailing economic and political forces, this full-scale reappraisal of a body of international law that, although soft, has had a pronounced positive effect on the progress of social justice is to be welcomed. It is well worth the close attention of government policymakers and regulators, company lawyers, and interested academics everywhere.

The assumption that member states of the European Union enjoyed exclusive competence over social provision has been shaken by the realization that they are now "semi-sovereign welfare states" whose policy choices are subject to increasing scrutiny under Community law. This book seeks to take stock of how Community membership is reshaping the legal environment of welfare provision across Europe. Topics covered include: the evolving economic and governance debates about Community intervention in social rights; the relationship between public services and Community competition and state aids law; the crucial developments which have taken place in the sphere of health care; and recent judgements on free movement and equal treatment for Union citizens as regards national education and social assistance policies. Social Welfare and EU Law provides a valuable collection of essays overall exploring the emergence of new models of social solidarity within the European Union.

The eleven papers reprinted here were originally presented at the 16th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in Brisbane in July 2002. Each paper is organized around the following considerations for the particular country in question:
- factors determining the role of collective agreements;
- factors determining the regulatory power of collective agreements toward the employment contract;
- factors limiting the regulatory power of collective agreements;
- degree of freedom of the parties to shape the employment contract; and
- future prospects for collective agreements as a means of regulating the employment contract.

This book explores the extent to which European Community law confers upon individuals the right to gain access to public services in other Member States. Are European citizens and third country nationals who have moved to other Member States entitled to claim minimum subsistence benefits,to receive medical care or to be admitted to education? Does Community law provide for a freedom of movement for patients, students and persons in need of social welfare benefits? If so, to what extent does Community law have regard for the Member States' fears for, and concerns about, welfare tourism? Besides addressing numerous detailed questions on the precise degree to which Community law allows for cross-border access to public services, the author analyses how Community law, and the Court of Justice in particular, have sought to reconcile the Community's objectives of realising freedom of movement and ensuring equality of treatment with the need to develop and maintain adequate social services within the Community. In addition, the book contains a detailed analysis of United States constitutional law on cross-border access to public services, exploring the question whether the European Community can possibly learn from the American experience.

From Rights to Management presents a powerful and thoroughly documented new thesis about the transformation of the concept of work during the period 1970-2000. The authors remind us of what we now easily forget: that, not so long ago, the right of an unemployed person to social security benefits and services was not questioned. Over the years, this right has been gradually replaced by a two-way bargain with the state. And in the place of this old 'social citizenship', there has arisen a government-corporate alliance that manages job seekers by contract. The shift from the needs of the person to the demands of business is complete. Those tempted to argue with this provocative thesis will find a formidable array of evidence assembled in this well-researched book. Focusing primarily on Australia - where the marketisation of welfare and employment services has gone farther than in any other country - Professors Carney and Ramia draw not only on the recent literature of several relevant disciplines, but also on in-depth interviews with thirty unemployed people from a wide range of backgrounds and situations. By assessing the inner working and impacts of public management transformations on the lives of those most deeply affected, the authors provide a keen understanding of how the management theories, initiatives, and pretexts -- economic and legal - work out in actuality. The interdisciplinary discussion incorporates debates about civil society, social capital, and other germane topics of great concern to scholars, policymakers, and administrators in this era of globalisation. A deep analysis of the new policy network of social services examines the types of contracts that govern thevarious parts of the system. The analysis concludes with a proposed new framework that reinstalls citizenship as the basis for welfare policy, but in a way that places real obligations and accountability on government and does not leave disadvantaged persons to fight a losing battle. No lawyer, professional, academic, or official in the social policy environment can afford to ignore this challenging work.

The 18 essays in this volume concentrate on the issues surrounding workers' participation, the area of industrial relations uppermost in Marco Biagi's thinking at the time of his assassination in March 2002. The trend toward ever greater employee involvement in managerial decision-making has been growing in Europe for over a decade, to a significant extent as a result of Biagi's work. From the start, he clearly discerned that the key to quality of work was worker participation. This book stands not merely as a homage, but as evidence that Biagi's assassination will not affect the progress he was making. In what amounts to an integrated series of recommendations for further European legislation on workers' participation in industrial relations, the authors analyse and evaluate the following: experience gained from implementation of the European Works Council Directive and the European Company Statute Directive; implications of the new Directive on Information/Consultation in National Undertakings and of the European Forum on the Financial Participation of Workers; and experience in a variety of national contexts, including those of Japan, Italy, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Poland and Slovenia. In the final analysis, employee involvement - when it is a genuine commitment on the part of all stakeholders - is seen as a sharing of cultural values that successfully reconciles efficiency and social justice. Those who believe this is a goal worth achieving, for reasons both economic and social, will recognize in this book a valuable contribution.

This volume provides an in-depth approach to issues and problems currently confronted by multi-national enterprises ("MNEs") and other large foreign investors in China at the beginning of the 21st century. The volume examines legal, business, and strategic issues for foreign investors that are seeking to enter the China market and for those foreign investors already in China and seeking to expand or reorganize their operations. The volume takes an overall approach of the large foreign investor with a long term business plan for China and proposes a basic corporate structure for this investor. The structures involves a series of wholly foreign owned enterprises, joint ventures, and representative offices all under the control and ownership of one or more investment holding companies. Each of the entities in this structure are discussed individually and as part of an overall corporate conglomerate. The volume also examines the protection of intellectual property as a basic corporate business problem that should be part of the initial planning process as the foreign investor makes its initial move into China. Too often protection of intellectual property is not considered to be a priority until violations occur in China. Some prior planning and an emphasis on protecting intellectual property rights can be advantageous and help to avoid the serious problems that can later arise. This volume is written for those business and legal managers who are given heavy responsibilities for managing a China business but who lack a background in China. Because of the great interest in China by many MNEs, many business and legal managers are moving to China or are given additional responsibilities in the US for the MNE's new China operations. Many of these persons are expected to make decisions about a China operation even though they may lack even basic knowledge about the Chinese political, legal, and business environment. This is the first book written by an American lawyer designed to address this need.

Although the European Court of Justice ruled in Bosman (1995) that professional sportsmen and sportswomen are free at the end of their contracts, they are still at the mercy of the clubs that employ them. Such pretexts as the "special nature" of sport publicly urged by such European eminences as Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroder have institutionalized the human trafficking of players, depriving them of basic rights guaranteed under all the laws enjoyed by Europeans. They may be well-paid as long as they are in the limelight, but they have no surety. They can be, and are, bought and sold repeatedly, each time returning profits to those who trade in their athletic prowess. In this searing indictment, Professor Blanpain underscores the demonstrable illegality of the current transfer system imposed by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA). He describes in detail the complex ramifications of FIFA's rules in the lives of players, clearly revealing how the fundamental rights of players to free movement and freedom of labour are systematically denied. He calls for the courts, from the European Court of Justice on down, to recognize this illegality and act to enforce the Bosman judgement. Professor Blanpain examines all the crucial legal issues involved. These include the following: the classification of sportsmen and sportswomen as "workers"; the nature of the contract between player and club; the legal capacity of minors to enter into an employment contract; the trade in foreign (frequently African and South American) players with no legal rights in Europe; disciplinary rules; training compensation fees; placement and status of players' agents; dispute resolution; and conflicts with competition law. An extensive array of documents, including the FIFA Transfer Regulations and material leading to the March 2001 agreement between FIFA and the European Commission, is included in a series of annexes.

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is the most expansive federal legislation addressing intimate violence in the United States to date. Meyer-Emerick uses three theories to examine the legislation: Foucault's theories on how people develop their ideas about their sexuality; Habermas's theories on the legitimacy of the state; and MacKinnon's theories of a gender hierarchy preserved through sexual violence. Through consideration of interviews with policymakers, professionals, and focus groups with citizens, her analysis suggests that state intervention is limited. Additional avenues for combating violence against women is therefore necessary.

These theories were also used to develop questions that were asked of policymakers and local professionals in interviews and with focus groups of survivors, perpetrators, and citizens. The interviews revealed perceptual differences between the thinking of the policymakers and the local professionals. These dissimilarities highlight the practitioners' lack of knowledge about the intent of VAWA, which may impede service delivery to clients. The focus group responses indicated that not only do women have a higher distrust than men but that survivors and perpetrators have opinions that diverge from both local citizens and other participants. This demonstrates a need for change in the system that is supposed to be protecting women from violence. Meyer-Emerick concludes with recommendations for further interventions. Policymakers and local providers of social services will find the work of particular value as will scholars and researchers dealing with domestic violence.

Because labour and social security issues have arisen in many disparate ways since the inception of the European Communities, there has been no consistent classification of European law in this area. This book attempts to rectify that situation, presenting as complete a codification as possible of this body of law, with texts of the most important documents and direct reference to print and online sources of all relevant conventions, regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and agreements. The codification encompasses European Union texts on labour and social security, as well as pertinent Council of Europe documents.

The increasing importance attached to the economic and social cohesion of the European Union since the 1980s, and the role of competition policy in achieving this objective, has special significance for the control of regional aids, given the general ban on State aid. Regional aids are considered to have the potential to contribute to economic and social cohesion and to undermine its attainment. The notion of competition policy as an instrument of economic and social cohesion has become a standard part of Commission rhetoric in defence of its actions. This book is concerned with the influence of EU competition policy on the regional policies of the Member States. It focuses on how the European Commission has interpreted the derogations from the State aid ban to enable the conduct of regional aid policies. The book takes both a historical perspective, tracing the evolution of policy, and a thematic one, examining in particular the relationship between EU competition and cohesion policies and the treatment of aid to very large projects. The author clearly demonstrates that, in reality, the competition policy control of regional aids is of much longer standing than the community's explicit regional aid policy and, in many respects, of arguably greater influence. She shows how competition policy has for almost thirty years shaped the design, scope and implementation of national regional aid policies; in no EU country has regional policy been unaffected by Commission intervention in the name of competition policy. Moreover, the policy principles developed for the EU now apply extraterritorially to members of the European Economic Area and to the current applicant countries. The study'soverall perspective is policy-oriented. It considers both the impact of Commission intervention in the past and the implications of policy for the future, especially in the context of enlargement and a wider Europe. It will be an invaluable resource for all policymakers and practitioners active in the fields of economic development, regional policy and State aid law at European, national and subnational levels.

More and more, social security systems influence each other. Governments, policy makers and academics have become very interested in the way various social security systems approach particular problems, such as ageing of society and the policy to reintegrate recipients of social security benefits into the workforce. For this purpose a profound description and analysis of the legal aspects of the Dutch social security system should prove useful. This monograph aims to provide this information. Moreover, this book describes the Dutch system from an international perspective: it discusses the impact of ILO Conventions, Conventions of the Council of Europe and EU regulations and directives on the Dutch social security system. In this way it shows which impact international law has had on the Dutch system. This contributes to more insight of the meaning of international social security law on this particular system, and it also contributes to the general knowledge of the impact international law has on national social security law.

The eight outstanding authors who have collaborated in this endeavour represent the highest levels of interaction among scholars, social partners, and EU institutions involved in the European Social Dialogue. This book is the final product of their Brussels conference in October 2002, organised by the Social Law Department of Ghent University. Their deeply informed contributions respond to such probing questions as the following:
- Does the much-talked-of European social model really exist?
- Are effective collective agreements feasible under the current EC Treaty?
- Is the conclusion of collective agreements negotiation or legislation?
- Can a viable compromise be achieved between the often contradictory aims of competition law and social policy?
The discussions include incisive analyses of relevant law and legal theory - pertinent EC Treaty provisions and directives, decisions of the Community's courts, existing and potential collective agreements - as well as declarations of the social partners and from Community institutions. The text of the work programme drawn up by ETUC, UNICE, and CEEP in November 2002 is reproduced in full.

This text is a collection of primary source materials in the labour law and social policy of the European Community in one volume. It includes documents and decisions up to May 1st, 1999, when the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force, along with key legislative instruments in EC labour law and social policy, significant associated policy documents produced by the Commission and important decisions of the European Court of Justice. This material is organised by reference to specific Directives and Treaty provisions. Thus (for example) the progress of a specific Action Programme may be followed through legislature, Commission and Court to reveal a complete overview of its development since the Community came into being. The author follows this analytic procedure for all major areas of labour law and social policy, including equality of treatment for men and women, equal pay and working conditions. Easy access to the book's information is provided by a reference system built on a series of tables presented at the beginning of the volume. These include two "tables of equivalence" that facilitate the process of converting former Treaty article numbers to the article numbers now in force under the amended and renumbered Treaty of Amsterdam. Advocates, judges, policymakers, scholars and students should find this sourcebook useful.