Arbetsrätten som fält, idé och kris: En studie av arbetsrättens grundläggande idéer ur ett Habermasiskt perspektiv.

Sammanfattning: Drawing on Jürgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, this article analyses the fundaments of labour law in general and the practices of ILO and the recent jurisprudence of the European Union in particular. The aims of the article are: firstly, to shed light on the discrepancies and conflicts between teleological and communicative actions within the scope of labour law, secondly, to show how these conflicts can manifest themselves in the reasoning of the ILO and the European Union and finally to analyse how Habermas’ understanding of facts and norms offers a mediation of the conflicts at hand. The theoretical claim of this piece is that labour law has to be based on normatively validated facts as not to exhaust its source of legitimacy which in the long run potentially can lead to a legitimation crisis of the field.