Labour law and institutionalism: A well-forgotten old

The article considers a set of problems related to the possibility of an institutional approach to the study of the development and functioning of labour law. An analysis of the features of institutionalism in economics, its main characteristics and differences from both neo-institutionalism and new institutionalism is given. The main features of this phenomenon are presented. Particular attention is paid to the “old” institutionalism and especially its legal direction, associated with the activities of the American scientist J. R. Commons. At the same time, the role of scientists of this direction in the development of problems of labour law, as well as in the formation of American labour and social security legislation in the first third of the 20th century, is emphasized. The author comes to the conclusion that lawyers, including the first scientists in the field of labour law, also used the institutional approach in their research. It is concluded that the institutional approach allows us to take a fresh look at the traditional problems of science and the branch of labour law, given that they are closely related to the economic processes taking place in society. It is argued that it is the institutional approach that makes it possible to reach the signs of an employment relationship, but from a slightly different angle. In this regard, it is not by chance that among the ideologists and authors of the first bills related to the regulation of labour relations in the United States in the thirties of the 20th century, supporters of institutionalism prevailed. The author connects the emerging doctrine of social partnership and the doctrine of “human relations” by F. Mayo precisely with institutional approaches to economics and law. All this makes it possible to include the institutional approach in the methodological tools of modern research into the problems of labour law.