PUBLISHED:February 06, 2017

Labor and Human Rights in the Trump Era, at Home and Abroad

Thursday, February 23
4:30-6:00 pm | Room 101
West Duke Building


During the 2016 election, Donald Trump routinely highlighted the economic suffering faced by American workers, critiquing deinstrialization and arguing that trade agreements played a major role in the loss of American manufacturing jobs. Despite this, he has not indicated any interest in making trade agreements fairer by raising labor standards in foreign countries, as critics of international trade agreements, as well as some human rights proponents, have advocated.

What kinds of changes can we expect to the governance of labor, both domestically and in international agreements under the Trump administration? Can we expect anything more than a new era of repression, or does Trump’s rejection of multinational trade agreements also present opportunities for either labor or human rights advocates? What strategies might working people, particularly those on the margins in the U.S. and elsewhere, employ to challenge repressive conditions they face at work given the rise of the anti-regulatory Right? What new regimes of governance might emerge?  Panelists will include:

  • Cynthia Estlund (NYU Law School, Catherine A. Rein Professor of Law)
  • Kevin Kolben (Rutgers Business School, Investigative Journalist)
  • Moderated by Peter Pihos (Duke Thomspon Writing Program, Lecturing Fellow)

    This event, co-sponsored by the International Human Rights Clinic at Duke Law School and the Center for International and Comparative Law, is part of the on-going discussion series Conversations in Human Rights at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, bringing together panelists from other institutions and Duke faculty to engage with their research on hot-button international human rights issues. The series draws together the social sciences, humanities, law, and policy.

    Please RSVP to Kate Abendroth by Thursday, February 20th at noon.