Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:42:44.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Labor Judge Unleashed: Rule of Law and Labor Rights in “Neoliberal” Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

César F. Rosado Marzán
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hoping to improve labor justice, some Latin American countries have reformed their labor courts without necessarily buttressing working-class power. Class power theories make us skeptical of these state-centric strategies for labor rights. Will the “rule-of-law” reforms work? This article reports ethnographic evidence collected by the author in the Chilean labor courts during 2009–2010, and secondary sources. It compares contemporary labor courts, reformed but in an otherwise “neoliberal” context, with the unreformed labor courts of the “socialist” years (1970–1972) to gauge the efficacy of rule-of-law reforms. Results show that despite the neoliberal context, the labor courts were more responsive to workers' claims than under socialism. Rule of law and procedural rules matter for effective labor rights.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , Fall 2018 , pp. 1574 - 1603
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2018 

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

References

Albiston, Catherine R. Institutional Inequality and the Mobilization of the Family and Medical Leave Act: Rights on Leave. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Amengual, Matthew. Politicized Enforcement in Argentina: Labor and Environmental Regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Atleson, James. Values and Assumptions of American Labor Law. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Ayres, Ian, and Braithwaite, John. Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Barrera, Manuel, and Samuel Valenzuela, J. “The Development of Labor Movement Opposition to the Military Regime.” In Military Rule in Chile: Dictatorship and Oppositions, edited by Samuel Valenzuela, Julio and Valenzuela, Arturo, 230–69. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. Historia de la Ley N° 20.087. Valparaíso: Congreso Nacional de Chile, 2006.Google Scholar
Bogg, Alan, Costello, Cathryn, Davies, Anne C. L., and Prassl, Jeremias. The Autonomy of Labour Law. London: Bloomsbury, 2015.Google Scholar
Brinks, Daniel. The Judicial Response to Police Killings in Latin America: Inequality and the Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Brinks, Daniel, and Forbath, William. “The Role of Courts and Constitutions in the New Politics of Welfare in Latin America.” In Law and Development of Middle-Income Countries: Avoiding the Middle-Income Trap, edited by Peerenboom, Randall and Ginsburg, Tom, 221–45. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Burawoy, Michael. The Extended Case Method: Four Countries, Four Decades, Four Great Transformations, and One Theoretical Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Buscaglia, Eduardo, and Dakolias, Maria. “Judicial Reform in Latin American Courts: The Experience of Argentina and Ecuador.” World Bank Technical Paper 350 (1996). doi:10.2139/ssrn.931379.Google Scholar
Carnes, Matthew. Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Carothers, Thomas. “The Many Agendas of Rule of Law Reform in Latin America.” In Rule of Law in Latin America: The International Promotion of Judicial Reform, edited by Domingo, Pilar and Sieder, Rachel, 4–16. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 2001.Google Scholar
Clagett, Helen H. Administration of Justice in Latin America. New York: Ocean, 1952.Google Scholar
Clermont, Kevin M. “Litigation Realities Redux.” Notre Dame Law Review 84 (2009): 1919–74.Google Scholar
Compa, Lance. “Labor Law and the Legal Way: Collective Bargaining in the Chilean Textile Industry Under the Unidad Popular.” Yale Law School Program in Law and Modernization Working Paper 23 (1973).Google Scholar
Cook, María Lorena. The Politics of Labor Reform in Latin America: Between Flexibility and Rights. College Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Couso, Javier, and Hilbink, Lisa. “From Quietism to Incipient Activism: The Institutional and Ideological Roots of Rights Adjudication in Chile.” In Courts in Latin America, edited by Helmke, Gretchen and Rios-Figueroa, Julio, 99–127. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Dirección del Trabajo. Anuario Estadístico, Capítulo V: Actividad de Conciliación. Unidad de Análisis Estadístico, Dirección del Trabajo, 2014. http://www.dt.gob.cl/documentacion/1612/articles-103561_recurso_1.pdf.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Frank. Inventing Equal Opportunity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Dukes, Ruth. The Labor Constitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. “Legal Environments and Organizational Governance: The Expansion of Due Process in the Workplace.” American Journal of Sociology 95 (1990): 1401–40.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. Working Law. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., Uggen, Christopher, and Erlanger, Howard S. “The Endogeneity of Legal Regulation: Grievance Procedures as Rational Myth.” American Journal of Sociology 10 (1999): 406–54.Google Scholar
Edwards, Sebastian. Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, Theodore, and Hill, Elizabeth. “Arbitration and Litigation of Employment Claims: An Empirical Comparison.” Dispute Resolution Journal 58, no. 4 (2003): 44–55.Google Scholar
Emerson, Robert, Fretz, Rachel, and Shaw, Linda. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Ermida, Oscar. “Protección, Igualdad, Dignidad, Libertad y No Discriminación.” Cadernos de AMATRA IV 15 (2011): 9–23.Google Scholar
Esquirol, Jorge. “The Failed Law of Latin America.” American Journal of Comparative Law 56 (2008): 75–124.Google Scholar
Estlund, Cynthia. Regoverning the Workplace: From Self-Regulation to Co-Regulation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Figueroa Valenzuela, Rodrigo. “Regulación de la Subcontratación y el Suministro de Trabajadores en Chile.” Veredas 16 (2008): 129–52.Google Scholar
Fine, Janice. “Solving the Problem from Hell: Tripartism as a Strategy for Addressing Labour Standards Non-Compliance in the United States.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 50, no. 4 (2014): 813–43.Google Scholar
Fine, Janice, and Gordon, Jennifer. “Strengthening Labor Standards Enforcement Through Partnerships with Workers Organizations.” Politics and Society 38, no. 4 (2010): 552–85.Google Scholar
Forbath, William E. Law and the Shaping of the Labor Movement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Frank, Volker. “The Elusive Goal in Democratic Chile: Reforming the Pinochet Labor Legislation.” Latin American Politics and Society 44, no. 1 (2002): 35–68.Google Scholar
Frank, Volker. “Politics Without Policy: The Failure of Social Concertation in Democratic Chile, 1990–2000.” In Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002, edited by Winn, Peter, 71–124. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Frankfurter, Felix, and Greene, Nathan. The Labor Injunction. London: Macmillan, 1930.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc, and Cahill, Mia. “‘Most Cases Settle’: Judicial Promotion and Regulation of Settlements.” Stanford Law Review 46 (1994): 1339–91.Google Scholar
Gamonal, Sergio C. “El Derecho Procesal del Trabajo, Sus Caracteres y el Principio de Igualdad por Compensación.” Revista de Derecho Laboral y Seguridad Social 3 (2015): 89–119.Google Scholar
Gamonal, Sergio C., and Rosado Marzán, César F. “Protecting Workers as a Matter of Principle: A Latin American View of U.S. Work Law.” Washington University Global Studies Law Review 13 (2014): 605–65Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephen, MacIntyre, Andrew, and Tiede, Lydia. “The Rule of Law and Economic Development.” Annual Review of Political Science 29 (2008): 205–23.Google Scholar
Harvey, David. A Short History of Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Hersant, Jeanne. “Estado y Justicia: Una Mirada Desde los Funcionarios Públicos.” Revista Faro 1, no. 19 (2014): 3–12.Google Scholar
Hilbink, Lisa. Judges Beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Hirschl, Ran. Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Huneeus, Alexandra. “Judging from a Guilty Conscience: The Chilean Judiciary's Human Rights Turn.” Law and Social Inquiry 35 (2010): 99–135.Google Scholar
Ietswaart, Heleen P. “The Handling of Dismissal Grievances in Chile: A Socio-Legal Study.” PhD diss., Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1977.Google Scholar
Ietswaart, Heleen P. “Labor Relations Litigation: Chile, 1970–1972.” Law and Society Review 16 (1982): 625–68.Google Scholar
Ingram, Matthew. “Judicial Power in Latin America.” Latin American Research Review 50 (2015): 250–60.Google Scholar
Ingram, Matthew. Crafting Courts in New Democracies: The Politics of Subnational Judicial Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas. “Anuario de Justicia.” Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas, various years. http://www.ine.cl/estadisticas/sociales/justicia.Google Scholar
International Labor Office. La Justicia Laboral En América Central, Panamá y República Dominicana. San José, Costa Rica: International Labor Office, 2011.Google Scholar
Kahn-Freund, Otto. Kahn-Freund's Labour and the Law, edited by Davies, Paul and Freedland, Mark. London: Steven & Sons, 1983.Google Scholar
Klare, Karl. “Judicial Deradicalization of the Wagner Act and the Origins of Modern Legal Consciousness, 1937–1941.” Minnesota Law Review 62 (1977): 265–340.Google Scholar
Landes, William M. “An Economic Analysis of the Courts.” Journal of Law and Economics 14, no. 1 (1971): 61–107.Google Scholar
Lichtenstein, Nelson, and Harris, Howell John. Industrial Democracy in America: The Ambiguous Promise. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Macchiavello, Guido. Manual de Derecho Procesal. Santiago: Editorial Juridica Cono Sur, 1997.Google Scholar
Malmberg, Jonas. “Enforcement of Labour Law.” In The Transformation of Labour Law in Europe—A Comparative Study of 15 Countries 1945–2004, edited by Hepple, Bob and Veneziani, Bruno, 263–87. Oxford: Hart, 2009.Google Scholar
Markovits, Inga. “The Death of Socialist Law?” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 3 (2007): 233–53.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol.1. London: Penguin Classics, [1867] 1992.Google Scholar
Matus, Alejandra. El Libro Negro de la Justicia Chilena. Santiago: Editorial Planeta, 1999.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Merryman, John Henry. The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America. 2d ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Meyer, John, and Rowan, Brian. “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.” In The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, edited by Powell, Walter and DiMaggio, Paul, 41–62. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Moss Wilson, William. “Just Don't Call Her Che.” New York Times, January 12, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/student-protests-rile-chile.html.Google Scholar
Murillo, Maria Victoria, and Schrank, Andrew. “With a Little Help from My Friends: Partisan Politics, Transnational Alliances, and Labor Rights in Latin America.” Comparative Political Studies 38, no. 8 (2005): 971–99.Google Scholar
Novoa Monreal, Eduardo. “Justica de Clase,” Mensaje 87 (1970): 108–18.Google Scholar
Oberg Yáñez, Hector, and Villalón, Macarena Manso. Recursos Procesales Civiles: Recursos de Reposición, Aclaración, Rectificación, Queja, Apelación, Hecho y Casación. 4th ed. Santiago: Legal Publishing & Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, 2009.Google Scholar
Ortúzar, Diego, and Vergara, Angela. “Bringing Justice to the Workplace: Labor Courts and Labor Laws in Chile, 1930s–1980s.” In Labor Courts in the Americas, edited by Fink, Leon and Palacio, Juan Manuel. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Palacios Muñoz, Daniel. “Criminal Procedure Reform in Chile: New Agents and the Restructuring of a Field.” In Lawyers and the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalization, edited by Dezalay, Yves and Garth, Bryant. G., 112–33. New York: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Pedriana, Nicholas, and Stryker, Robin. “The Strength of the Weak Agency: Early Enforcement of the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Expansion of State Capacity, 1965–1971.” American Journal of Sociology 110 (2004): 709–60.Google Scholar
Plá Rodriguez, Américo. Los Principios del Derecho del Trabajo. Buenos Aires: Depalma, 1978.Google Scholar
Poder Judicial de Chile. “Estadísticas Suprema-Cortes Juzgados Históricas 2006–2016,” 2017. http://www.pjud.cl/.Google Scholar
Prillaman, William. The Judiciary and Democratic Decay in Latin America: Declining Confidence in the Rule of Law. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.Google Scholar
Ramm, Thilo. “Workers' Participation, the Representation of Labour and Special Labour Courts.” In The Making of Labour Law in Europe: A Comparative Study of Nine Countries Up to 1945, edited by Hepple, Bob, 242–76. London: Mansell, 1986.Google Scholar
Remmer, Karen L. “Political Demobilization in Chile, 1973–1978,” Comparative Politics 12, no. 3 (1980): 275–301.Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Garavito, César. “Towards a Sociology of the Global Rule of Law Field: Neoliberalism, Neoconstitutionalism, and the Contest Over Judicial Reform in Latin America.” In Lawyers and the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalization, edited by Dezalay, Yves and Garth, Bryant G., 156–82. New York: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Rosado Marzán, César F. “Of Labor Inspectors and Judges: Chilean Labor Law Enforcement After Pinochet (and What the United States Can Do to Help).” Saint Louis University Law Journal 54 (2010): 497–523.Google Scholar
Rosado Marzán, César F. “Punishment and Work Law Compliance: Lessons from Chile.” Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal 29 (2012): 343–405.Google Scholar
Rosado Marzán, César F. “ The Limits of Human Rights for Labor Rights.” In The ILO from Geneva to the Pacific Rim: West Meets East, edited by Jensen, Jill M. and Lichtenstein, Nelson, 206–32. New York: Palgrave McMillan and International Labor Office, 2016.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Sandbrook, Richard, Edelman, Marc, Heller, Patrick, and Teichman, Judith. Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, Prospects. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Santos, Alvaro. “The World Bank's Uses of the ‘Rule of Law’ Promise in Economic Development.” In The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal, edited by Santos, Alvaro and Trubek, David M., 253–300. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Schrank, Andrew. “Professionalization and Probity in the Patrimonial State: Labor Inspectors in the Dominican Republic.” Latin American Politics and Society 51 (2009): 91–115.Google Scholar
Schrank, Andrew, and Piore, Michael. Norms, Regulations and Labor Standards in Central America. Mexico City: ECLAC, 2007.Google Scholar
Scott, W. Richard, and Meyer, John W. Institutional Environments and Organizations: Structural Complexity and Individualism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994.Google Scholar
Sehnbruch, Kirsten. The Chilean Labor Market: A Key to Understanding Latin American Labor Markets. New York: Palgrave, 2006.Google Scholar
Seidman, Irving. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. 4th ed. New York: Teachers College Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Stake, Robert E. The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995.Google Scholar
Summers, Clyde. “Labor Courts and Grievance Settlement in Western Europe.” Columbia Law Review 72 (1972): 1119–26.Google Scholar
Thayer Ojeda, William, and Novoa, Patricio. Manual del Derecho del Trabajo, Tomo II. Santiago: Editorial Jurídica de Chile, 1980.Google Scholar
Wachter, Michael. “Labor Unions: A Corporatist Institution in a Competitive World.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 155 (2007): 581–634.Google Scholar
Weatherspoon, Floyd D. “The Impact of the Growth and Use of ADR Processes on Minority Communities, Individual Rights, and Neutrals.” Capital University Law Review 39 (2011): 789–804.Google Scholar
Webb, Sidney, and Webb, Beatrice. Industrial Democracy. New York: August M. Kelly, [1847] 1965.Google Scholar
Western, Bruce. Between Class and Market. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Winn, Peter. Weavers of a Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Winn, Peter. “The Pinochet Era.” In The Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002, edited by Winn, Peter, 14–70. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Zucker, Lynne G. “The Role of Institutionalization in Cultural Persistence.” American Journal of Sociology 42 (1977): 726–43.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Corte Suprema de Justicia (C.S.J.) [Supreme Court], 6 marzo 1970, “Cementos Ready Mix, S.A.” (Chile).Google Scholar
Corte Suprema de Justicia (C.S.J.) [Supreme Court], 12 mayo 1970, “Bonet y Parragué. S.A.” (Chile).Google Scholar
Corte Suprema de Justicia (C.S.J.) [Supreme Court], 17 junio 2010, “Kenrick y Cia, Ltda.” (recurso de queja) (Chile).Google Scholar
2° Juzgado de Letras del Trabajo de Santiago [Second Labor Court of Santiago], 1 junio 2010, “Galarce c. Unisono Soluciones de Negocios Chile S.A.” Rol de la causa: RIT O-534-2010 (Chile).Google Scholar
2° Juzgado de Letras del Trabajo de Santiago [Second Labor Court of Santiago], 1 junio 2010, “Salcobrand S.A. c. Dirección del Trabajo.” Rol de la causa: RIT I-16-2010 (Chile).Google Scholar
2° Juzgado de Letras del Trabajo de Santiago [Second Labor Court of Santiago], 13 septiembre 2010, “Bustamante c. Empresa de Transportes Rurales Tur Bus Ltda.” Rol de la causa: RIT O-1840-2010 (Chile).Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Cód. Proc. Civ. (Chile).Google Scholar
Cód. Trab. (Chile).Google Scholar
DFL No. 2, mayo 30, 1967, Diario Oficial [D.O.] (Chile).Google Scholar
Law No. 16.455, abril 6, 1966, Diario Oficial [D.O.] (Chile).Google Scholar
Law No. 19.374, febrero 18, 1995, Diario Oficial [D.O.] (Chile).Google Scholar