Kahraman | Labor in Hard Times: Workers’ Legal Mobilization at the European Court of Human Rights

The Law in World Affairs program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs presents a virtual talk with Filiz Kahraman, associate professor of political science, University of Toronto.

Filiz Kahraman will present her new book, Labor in Hard Times: Workers’ Legal Mobilization at the European Court of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2026), which examines how organized labor in Turkey and the United Kingdom turned to international human rights law in response to domestic repression and neoliberal restructuring.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork and an original database of labor rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the book analyzes how workers used international litigation not just to win legal victories, but to build political pressure, assert legitimacy and reclaim space for collective action. Focusing on public sector unionists in Turkey and blacklisted construction workers in the UK, it explores how grassroots activists and lawyers mobilized international law as a tactical resource: Workers engaged rights discourse strategically to pursue concrete goals, while remaining rooted in class-based solidarity. The lecture will reflect on these findings to discuss the changing strategies of labor movements in an era of democratic backsliding and backlash against international institutions.