Law at work: sociological readings and perspectives

In a context of profound reforms of French employment legislation (the Code du travail), this critical note proposes a reflection on the articulation between two fields of sociology dealing respectively with work and employment and the law. A review of the literature makes it possible to show that their intersections are contemporaneous with the birth of sociology on the one hand, and labour and employment law on the other, and then to highlight the recent interchanges and new approaches shared between France and the United States that have raised questions about the role of the law in the analysis of work and employment. At the present time it appears to be essential to take the law into account in research on changes in work and employment, as these two institutions are mutually constituted. Both the empirical and more theoretical works addressed in this article establish and confirm this relationship, highlighting the contemporary importance of, and the actors involved in, the social uses of law at work.