Labour Law Discussion Group seminar:

‘How Human Rights Law Meets Labour Law under Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights’

Dr Vladislava Stoyanova (Lund University)

12:30-14:00pm, Wednesday 28 February

Brasenose College Tower Bursary, Oxford.

The Labour Law Discussion Group is pleased to welcome Dr Vladislava Stoyanova, research visitor at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Below is an abstract of her presentation on ‘How Human Rights Law Meets Labour Law under Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights.’

ABSTRACT

The ILO Forced Labour Convention defines forced labour as ‘all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.’ Although the European Court of Human Rights in its case law under Article 4 of the ECHR (slavery, servitude and forced labour) formally refers to this definition, it seems to have developed its own approach by reference to the ‘disproportionate burden’ test. In my presentation that is based on my book Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered. Conceptual Limits and States’ Positive Obligations in European Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017), I will assess the Court’s approach and further encourage a definitional approach to forced labour under human rights law that is linked to labour law. I will use as a reference point the most recent ECtHR judgment in this area: Chowdury and Others v Greece, Application No 21884/15, 30 March 2016.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Vladislava Stoyanova is a Ragnar Söderberg Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Lund University, Sweden. She is the author of Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered. Conceptual Limits and States’ Positive Obligations in European Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and the co-editor of Seeking Asylum in the European Union. Selected Protection Issues Raised by the Second Phrase of the Common European Asylum System(Brill, 2015) and The New Asylum and Transit Countries in Europe During and in the Aftermath of the 2015/2016 Crisis (Brill, 2018).  She has published in the area of human rights law, migration and refugee law.