Reclaiming Labour Law and Beyond

Abstract

This introductory chapter tries to brief new developments in labour laws in Asia particularly in regard to increasing informal forms of labour across Asia. The first part of this introduction deals with the intrinsic contradiction of labour law in which labour appeared to be a commodity to be protected from market despotism, but nonetheless as a commodity. The second part discusses the relations between formal/informal labour and labour laws by tracing the historical trajectory of modern labour law and formal forms of labour as a reference point of all the discussion about the informalisation of labour. The third part addresses the uneven development of the informalisation of labour in Asia, with particular focus on its impact on women workers. The last part of the introduction tries to draw some strategic implications of the informalisation of labour on the future of the labour movement in Asia.