Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T15:53:41.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The MUA Affair: The Role of Law vs. The Rule of Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

H.J. Glasbeek
H.J. Glasbeek*
Affiliation:
Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper focusses on what the judicial battles in the waterfront dispute tell us about the role of law and what implications this has for labour relations and corporate law. For labour law, the significance is that reliance on liberal law has limited potential for workers seeking to pursue their causes through the courts. For corporate law, the Court’s decision makes it plain that, when there is an overt conflict between wealth owners and workers, the courts will try to obfuscate this, while ensuring the security of property owners. To this end, the High Court-despite scolarly criticism-treated each corporation in the Patrick group as if it were an independent atom. This ruling will be a green light to other anti-union employers and will disadvantage workers in a system which increasingly makes their rights dependent on the legal identity of their employer.

Type
Symposium on the Waterfront Dispute
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , December 1998 , pp. 188 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bennett, Laura (1992), ‘The American Model of Labour Law in Australia’, 5 Australian Journal of Labour Law 135.Google Scholar
Berle, A., Means, G. (1932), The Modern Corporation and Private Property, N.Y.: Commerce Clearing House.Google Scholar
Berle, A. (1931), ‘Corporate Powers as Powers in Trust’, 44 Harvard Law Review 1049.Google Scholar
Berle, A. (1932), ‘For Whom Corporate Managers Are Trustees: A Note’, 45 Harvard Law Review 1365.Google Scholar
Boulton, A. (1984), ‘Government Regulation of the Internal Affairs of Trade Unions’, in Rawson, D. and Fisher, C. (Eds.), Changing Industrial Law, Sydney: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Business Council of Australian Industrial Relations Study Commission (1989), Enterprise-Based Bargaining Units: A Better Way of working, Business Council of Australia.Google Scholar
Cary, W.L. (1974), ‘Federalism and Corporate Law: Reflections upon Delaware’, 83 Yale Law Journal 663.Google Scholar
Chin, D. (1997), ‘Exhuming the Individual Employment Contract: A Case of Labour Law Exceptionalism’, 10 Australian Journal of Labour Law 259.Google Scholar
Coase, R. (1937), ‘The Nature of the Firm’, Economica, 4:386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, H. (1989), ‘Labour Law as a Vocation’, 105 Law Quarterly Review 468.Google Scholar
Confederation of Australian Industry (1991), A New Industrial Relations System for Australia, Psicomp.Google Scholar
Creighton, W.B., Ford, W.J., Mitchell, R.J. (1993), Labour Law: Text and Materials, 2 ed., Law Book Co. Google Scholar
Dabscheck, B. (1990), ‘Industrial Relations and the Irresistible Magic Wand: The BCA’s Plan to Americanize Australian Industrial Relations’, Working Paper No. 76, School of Industrial Relations, UNSW.Google Scholar
Dahl, R.A. (1970), After the Revolution? Authority in a Good Society, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Deetz, S.A. (1992), Democracy in an Age of Corporate Colonization, Albany: State University of N.Y. Press.Google Scholar
Dodd, E.D. (1932), ‘For Whom Are Corporate Managers Trustee?’, 45 Harvard Law Review 1145.Google Scholar
Easterbrook, F., Fischel, D. (1991), The Economic Structure of Corporate Law.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, M. (1983), ‘Corporate Legitimacy, Conduct and Governance — Two Models of the Corporation’, 17 Creighton Law Review 1.Google Scholar
Ford, W.J. (1994), ‘The Constitution and the Reform of Australian Industrial Relations’, 7 Australian Journal of Labour Law 105.Google Scholar
Ford, W.J. (1997), ‘Restructuring Australian Labour Law: A Constitutional Perspective’, 10 Australian Journal of Labour Law 1.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1962), Capitalism and Freedom, Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Galbraith, J.K. (1985), The New Industrial State, 4 ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Glasbeek, H.J. (1987), ‘Labour Relations Policy and Law as a Mechanism of Adjustment’, 25 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 179.Google Scholar
Glasbeek, H.J. (1988), ‘The Corporate Social Responsibility Movement: The Latest in Maginot Lines to Save Capitalism’, 11 Dalhousie Law Journal, 363.Google Scholar
Glasbeek, H.J. (1995a), ‘More Direct Director Responsibility: Much Ado About… What?’, Canadian Business Law Journal 416.Google Scholar
Glasbeek, H.J. (1995b), ‘Preliminary Observations on Strains of, and Strains in, Corporate Law Scholarship’ in Pearce, F., Snider, L., eds., Corporate Crime; Contemporary Debates, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Ch. 6.Google Scholar
Glasbeek, H.J. (1998), ‘E.I. Sykes and the Significance of Law’, 11 Australian Journal of Labour Law 24.Google Scholar
Gower, L.C.B., Davies, Paul, (1997) Principles of Modern Company Law, 6 ed., London: Sweet & Maxwell.Google Scholar
H.R. Nicholls Society (1986), Arbitration in Contempt, Melbourne: H.R. Nicholls Society.Google Scholar
Hadden, T. (1992), ‘The Regulation of Corporate Groups in Australia’, 15 University of N.S.W. Law Journal 61.Google Scholar
Hanks, P. (1996) Constitutional Law in Australia, 2 ed., Butt.Google Scholar
Hill, J. (1995), ‘At the Frontiers of Labour Law and Corporate Law: Enterprises Bargaining, Corporations and Employees’, 23 Federal Law Review 205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, P. (1992), The End of Certainty: The Story of the 1980’s, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Locke, J. (1960), ‘Second Treatise on Civil government’, in Social Contract, Essays by Locke, Hume and Rousseau, London: OUP.Google Scholar
Ludeke, J.T.Q.C. (1994), ‘The Structural Features of the New System’, 7 Australian Journal of Labour Law 132.Google Scholar
McCallum, R. (1998), ‘A Priority of Rights: Freedom of Association and the Waterfront Dispute’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 207.Google Scholar
McPherson, C.B. (1984), Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Nadel, M.V. (1975), ‘The Hidden Dimensions of Public Policy: Private Governments and the Policy-Making Process’, 37 Journal of Policy 2.Google Scholar
Naughton, Richard (1994), The New Bargaining Regime Under the Industrial Relations Reform Act’, 7 Australian Journal of Labour Law 147.Google Scholar
Naughton, Richard (1997), ‘Sailing into Unchartered Seas: The Role of Unions Under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth)’, 10 Australian Journal of Labour Law 112.Google Scholar
Niland, J. (1989), Transforming Industrial Relations in New South Wales: A Green Paper, Vol. 1, N.S.W. Government Printer.Google Scholar
O’Donovan, J. (1977), ‘Can the Contract of Employment be Regulated Through the Corporations Power?’, 51 Australian Law Journal 234.Google Scholar
Paton, G.W., Derham, D.P.(1972), Jurisprudence, 4 ed.Google Scholar
Pickering (1968), ‘The Company as a Separate Legal Entity’, 31 Modem Law Review 481.Google Scholar
Rickard, J. (1984), H.B. Higgins: The Rebel as Judge, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Sargent, N.C. (1985), ‘Parent Subsidiary Relations in the West German Konzernrecht’ 10 Canadian Business Law Journal 327.Google Scholar
Sargent, N.C. (1987), ‘Corporate Groups and the Corporate Veil in Canada: A Penetrating Look at Parent-Subsidiary Relation sin the Modern Corporate Enterprise’, 17 Manitoba Law Journal 156.Google Scholar
Schrecker, T. (1985), ‘Corporate Power: The Challenge to Legal and Political Power’ Address at the Jurisprudence Centre, Carleton University, Jan.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1969), Law, Society and Industrial Justice, N.Y.: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Stone, C. (1975), Where the Law Ends: The Social Control of Corporate Behaviour, N.Y.: Harper Colophon.Google Scholar
Stone, K. (1993), ‘Contractual Mechanisms for Protecting Employees with the Nexus-of-Contrast Firm’, 43 University of Toronto Law Journal.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. (1984), ‘Corporate Governance’, 93 Yale Law Journal, 1, 197.Google Scholar
Ziegel, Daniels, McIntosh & Johnston (1994), Cases and Materials on Partnerships and Canadian Business Corporations, 3 ed., Toronto: Carswell.Google Scholar