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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR LAW

Concept encompassing, firstly, labour law which is common to an international community of sovereign states and based on international sources of law. This concerns rules relating to working life which are laid down at international level. Secondly, rules which determine the international scope of the labour-law provisions of individual countries can also be regarded as falling within the domain of international labour law, although these rules on the choice of law are in fact part of each state's own legal system.

Rules relating to working life which are laid down by sources at international level are represented by the concept of public international labour law. The manner in which they affect national systems of labour law varies. In the case of Finland's labour law the starting-point is the principle of dualism, which treats public international labour law and national labour law as two distinct systems. The rules of international law are incorporated into Finnish law by changing the national norms to conform to the substance of international labour law. Generally speaking, rules of public international labour law are not applicable, as they stand, to working life and employment relationships. The direct effect of some EC rules is an important exception to this dualistic starting-point.

Private international labour law, on the other hand, is a particular element of private international law. Its rules regulate the international scope of the domestic labour law of individual states. In this case the question is whether Finland's labour law is applied in other countries and whether, conversely, it permits another country's labour law to apply to work performed in Finland. These rules on the choice of law (see conflict of laws) are associated with, for example, employment contracts of an international nature, which embody a connection of this kind between the territorial and legal domains of two countries. See posted worker.)

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