Thesis defence Worker Participation in EU Law and the Rise of Neoliberalism Add to calendar 2026-10-02 10:30 2026-10-02 12:30 Europe/Rome Worker Participation in EU Law and the Rise of Neoliberalism Sala degli Stemmi Villa Salviati - Castle YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Oct 02 2026 10:30 - 12:30 CEST Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati - Castle Organised by Department of Law Niall O'Shaughnessy will defend his thesis There was a time when the ideas and debates surrounding company and labour law in Europe looked remarkably different to today. In the midst of the 1970s, following waves of striking workers, economic crises and reconfigurations in global capitalism, the European Economic Community (as it then was) attempted to install worker voices into the decision-making of large public companies. The European Commission proposed new measures for workers in the form of seats on company boards and rights to information and consultation. Initially, Commission officials were certain that these measures would become law. However, as the background economic conditions worsened in Western Europe and the political circumstances in member states shifted to the right, employers and their representatives were able to mount a resistance and ensure the Commission’s plans failed. This thesis charts the rise and fall of the EEC’s worker participation plans, from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s, and does so through an archival reconstruction of each of the Commission’s four proposed measures. The first two case studies focus on codetermination rights, which featured in the first proposal for a European Company Statute and the Fifth Company Law Directive. Rights to information and consultation are the subject of the second two case studies, through an examination of the Third Company Law Directive and the so-called Vredeling Directive. The thesis shows that the momentum the Commission had, which was derived from an ascendant labour movement and references to industrial democracy, was undermined by an organised employer resistance. The thesis further argues that the tactics and arguments used by employers depended on rapidly changing background economic conditions and, therefore, must be understood as part of a neoliberal transformation of capitalism. Register Related events