The Position of Labour Law in the Private Law System. The Past, Present and Future of Estonian Labour Law

• Author: Gaabriel Tavits
• Pages: 124-134

Gaabriel Tavits

The Position of Labour Law in the Private Law System. The Past, Present and Future of Estonian Labour Law

There is no reason to deny that the division of law into two larger branches - private and public law - is acknowledged and as a result, legal systems have been constructed on that basis. A place has to be provided for the most important branches of law in this classification. However, a classification need not always be final. Every classification includes elements which do not allow unambiguous deciding whether the notions belong to one or another category.

Such division of law is not problem-free, but it is largely a matter of agreement under which larger subject one or another branch of law should be treated.

One of the branches of law whose status within the domain of private and public law cannot be determined indisputably is labour law. Nobody doubts that law of obligations belongs to private law. There is also no doubt that administrative law is a part of public law. However, with labour law, the parties to a discussion are no longer sure whether this is private or public law. The problem is not new but once in a while, a question about the status and the regulation of labour law relations crops up.

Although in Estonian it has been resolved by legal and technical means that labour relations will not be regulated through law of obligations, the problem has remained undecided.

Private and Public Law in Labour Law

The development of labour law remains in a large part in the period when industrial production was introduced. The formation and development of factory legislation is regarded as the seed of the creation of labour law. Several authors have though claimed that the legal regulation of labour relations does not originate solely from the development of factory legislation but the modern labour law has several connections with Roman private law and the modern employment contract has, in fact, evolved as a result of the classification of contracts found in Roman law. ¹

For the purposes of distinguishing between private and public law, analyses has always focused primarily on three different options, the first of which goes back to the ancient Roman times, whereas the other approaches are more modern. In some cases, approach motivated by interest as used by Roman jurists has been employed. The state is always interested in maintaining order in the relationships between people. Thus, one could claim that any legal regulation is public law as all provisions enforced by the state express in their final stage the state's clear interest in establishing particular rules in the respective field, the observance of which would ensure order in relationships between people. ² One may, however, proceed from the fact that interest for the regulation of which attempts are made, determines how and through which methods the relationships between people should be regulated.

The main question is whether the target of the attempts is, in a more limited manner, in the interests of a private person, or in the interests of the public (state). If the private interest is predominant, one may assert on the basis of Roman jurists' relevant viewpoint that the regulation concerned belongs to the domain of private law. However, when the emphasis is, above all, on the interests of the state, it is public law.

On the basis of the theory of the subject, the distinction between private and public law is, first and foremost, related to the question whether one of the parties to the relationship has the authorisation of the state authority. If one of the parties to the relationship has the authorisation of the state authority, the relationship belongs to the domain of public law. When the subject of the relationship lacks the authorisation of the state authority, the relationship is between private individuals and consequently the matter belongs to the realm of private law.

The third approach which supplements the theory of the subject claims that problem solving belongs to the field regulated by public law, when one of the subjects has the authorisation of the state authority and when it also exercises the authority. At the same time, one cannot overlook the fact that if a particular branch of law belongs to the domain of private or public law, the realisation of the relationship between the parties in that relationship is also predetermined - it is done either with regard to subordination or coordination. If the problem belongs to the domain of public law it is presumed that a relationship of power and subordination exists between the parties.

On the basis of these theories it is only generally possible to determine where a branch of law belongs. The classification does not provide a concrete basis for the classification. There are various situations, where one of the parties to the relationship does have the authorisation of the state authority, but the relationship nevertheless falls under private law. At the same time, there are situations, where there is a power and subordination relationship between the parties, but the branch belongs to the domain of private law.

Such classification into private and public law provides an opportunity to distinguish between the branches of law, above all, in case of classical branches of law such as civil law, criminal law and constitutional law. More problems arise, however, in the case of newer branches of law that have evolved recently whose status cannot be determined in a uniform manner due to that. Such newer branches of law include, for example, labour law, intellectual property law, commercial law, etc. In case of all these newer branches of law, both public and private law approaches have intermingled. Uniform classification of these branches of law is impossible and thus one may only talk about their tendency to fall within one or another branch of law.

Labour law is a unique branch of law in which various development stages can be clearly identified. Having commenced, above all, due to the fact that freedom of contract failed to guarantee to employees sufficient protection in their relationships with employers, labour law came to be increasingly related to public law, and starting from 1930-1940 it is considered public law. ³ However, in 1950-1960, the private law component of labour law was more and more emphasised and one could not uniformly determine whether it related to public or private law. It is a rather wide-spread approach that due to embracing both public law and private law provisions, labour law is located somewhere in between. ⁴

However, at present one must admit that labour law is increasingly treated as judicial matter falling under the realm of private law. ⁵ The private law status of labour law is not unequivocal because people are used to speaking of a special status of labour law in private law. The separate status of labour law in private law as a whole is conditioned both by internal and external characteristics. The external characteristics include, first and foremost, the existence of a separate code, a separate court system. The internal characteristics, in their turn, are related to the fact that besides private law provisions there are very many public law restrictions which do not allow the parties to an employment relationship to decide themselves on the working conditions that they choose to apply in that particular working relationship.

In determining the position of labour law in the legal system as a whole, three approaches are prevalent. According to one approach, labour law falls within civil law, constituting there a section of property law relationships. ⁶ Another classification places labour law between public and private law without assigning thereto a more particular position in the classification of law. The third approach views labour law as a part of private law - however, it is a special area of private law. ⁷ The general private law consists of contract law, law of property, inheritance law, family law and the general principles.

All the three approaches have also been reflected in Estonia. The prevalent approach is that labour law is a section of private law, but taking into account the essential role of public law provisions in regulating labour relations, labour law also possesses, on a considerable scale, public law characteristics. ⁸

Position of Labour Law in Estonian Private Law System

Classification of law into private and public law has not had a long history in the Republic of Estonia after it regained its independence. The classification of law into private and public law was recognised in the Republic of Estonia from 1918-1940. ⁹ After the establishment of Soviet power, the former classification of law lost its meaning and the legal system was developed according to the concepts of the jurisprudence of Soviet Russia. After Estonia regained its independence, the classification into private law and public law has been adopted. As a result, the determination of the status of labour law is crucial.

The legal system applicable in Estonia in 1918-1940 had been, in a large part, taken over from the former Russian legal system. This arrangement was particularly valid with regard to labour law. Estonia did not enact its own labour acts at first. In regulating labour relations, the second part of the XI volume of the Russian collection of laws was used, which contained, inter alia, the Industrial Work Act that governed primarily the protection of workers employed in factories through public law means. ¹⁰ The Baltic Private Law Act regulating the working conditions of particular workers was simultaneously in force in Estonia. ¹¹...