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What we do

The Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory (LLDRL), housed at Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµâ€™s Faculty of Law in Montreal, Canada, brings together international and interdisciplinary researchers, practitioners and students seeking to further reflections on the interactions between labour law and development and to contribute to the emergence of a transnational labour law which recentres the Global South - and the "South in the North - and the workers and types of work typically excluded from past and current debates in labour law and development

°¿³Ü°ùÌý, , and  examine the marginalization of informal, rural, domestic, migrant and agricultural workers from traditional labour regulations, as well as the impact of such exclusions on development policies put forward at the national and international levels. 

Though our ' research interests are diverse, our work is deliberately focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora in countries of the North, and draws from feminist, post-colonial and critical race theories. Several reasons explain these choices: First, this region and these workers remain marginalized in discussions on globalization and labour law. Second, colonial history, the weight of informal labour in the region, and the fact that it remains one of the main targets of international development policies further justify interest in this area. Finally, the importance of the African diaspora in the economies of countries of the North and South, the development of temporary immigration programs in sectors, such as domestic and agricultural labour, and the increasing number of undocumented workers explain interest in this social category.

In addition to disseminating our research in our , guest-edited special issues, as well as via the , seminars, public conferences and , our members from the North and South share their research materials via the Labour Law and Development Research Database . By providing an unparalleled access to rare, poorly preserved, primary and secondary resources on labour law and development to our members from around the world, the database contributes to our goal of strengthening the collaboration between researchers of the North and of the South. Collecting information on these issues and making it accessible to researchers from the North and South. 

The LLDRL's mission includes :

  • Developing research on the links between labour law, on the one hand, and economic and social development theories and programs, on the other;
  • Improving knowledge of the regulation of informal, rural, and domestic labour;
  • Studying the working conditions of the African diaspora in western societies;
  • Collecting information on these issues and making it accessible to researchers from the North and South;
  • Strengthening links between researchers and professors from the North and South;
  • Disseminating research results by publishing articles and other works and by holding public conferences, courses, seminars and workshops on the issues identified by the network.
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