Face à l'irresponsabilité: la dynamique de la solidarité, Conférences du Collège de France, 2018. Edited by Alain SUPIOT

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12126
Published date01 December 2018
AuthorDominique Méda
Date01 December 2018
Copyright © The author 2018
Journal compilation and translation © International Labour Organization 2018
International Labour Review, Vol. 157 (2018), No. 4
BOOK REVIEWS
Face à l’irresponsabilité: la dynamique de la solidarité, Conférences du Collège
de France, 20 18. Edited by Alain SUPIOT. Paris, Collège de France, 2018.
182 pp. ISBN 978-2-7226-0475-9.
This collection of articles, edited by French legal scholar Alain Supiot, who holds
the Chair in “The social State and globalization: A legal analysis of forms of solidarity”
at the Collège de France, is the outcome of a seminar organized by this institution in
March 2016, on the subject of “joint liability”. In addition to the introduction by Alain
Supiot, the collection contains seven articles, each addressing this notion and its permu-
tations from a particular point of view.
This work represents a further stage in the research that Alain Supiot has con-
ducted on this subject over a number of years. It follows two earlier collections: the rst,
published in April 2015 and also edited by him – La solidarité: enquête sur un principe
juridique [Solidarity: Investigation of a legal principle],1 traces the history of the concept
of solidarity, from its appearance in Roman law to its modern application in the areas of
biology, sociology and labour law, highlighting the ongoing relevance of this principle;
in the second, published in November of the same year and edited by Supiot and an-
other eminent legal scholar, Mireille Delmas-Marty – Prendre la responsabilité au sérieux
[Taking responsibility seriously],2 the authors argue that the principle of responsibility
will inevitably take on a central role in the restructuring of the international legal order
in the twenty-rst century, not only because accountability is a value inherent in every
organized community but also because the obligation is even greater when members of
such communities are interdependent.
Face à l’irresponsabilité: la dynamique de la solidarité [In the absence of responsibil-
ity: The dynamic of solidarity] returns to the question discussed in the second collection:
how can a generalized lack of responsibility be avoided at a time when interdependen-
cies between individuals, between countries or between humanity and the biosphere are
becoming stronger and more visible on a global scale, and when the magnitude of the
impact of human activities on the planet and societies is changing the scale and nature of
responsibilities? The free circulation of capital and goods has unshackled multinational
enterprises from the social and environmental responsibilities that national laws brought
to bear on them, without however subjecting them to international rules with the same
objective. Meanwhile, national legislations are engaged in a social and environmental
1
Alain Supiot (ed.): La solidarité: enquête sur un principe juridique (Paris, Odile Jacob, 2015).
2 Alain Supiot and Mireille Delmas-Marty (eds): Prendre la responsabilité au sérieux (Paris,
PUF, 20 15).

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