Christopher M. Roberts, Chinese University of Hong Kong, has posted Re-Covering Forced Labour: Colonial Foreclosures and Forgotten Potentials, which is forthcoming in the Melbourne Journal of International Law:
This article aims to reopen the question of the meaning of forced labour. It undertakes this task through a detailed exploration of the history of the 1930 Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour ('Forced Labour Convention') based on a careful reading of the archival record. The history of the Forced Labour Convention and its closely linked predecessor, the 1926 Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery, reveals that while the processes leading to both were initially open-ended, colonial interests ultimately produced sharp limitations in both texts. Recognising the colonial foundations of contemporary international law in this area should enhance our openness to reconsidering how we think about coercive labour today. The development of the Forced Labour Convention did not only consist in limiting dynamics, however. While they were pushed to the margins, this article also highlights three areas-conditions of work, conditions of life and worker freedoms-in which the historical record helps to suggest a more expansive, progressive understanding of forced labour than that which has become commonplace. Reconstructing our approach to forced labour, with attention to these potentials, can revitalise the concept in the contemporary world, overcoming close to a century of foreclosure.--Dan Ernst
