Focus on “Labor Law in Civil Law- German Experiences ”， a insightful lecture delivered by Professor Heinz

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By Ning Yang Oct 15, 2015

On Oct 13th ,2015, Prof. Heinz –Dietrich Steinmeyer, a famous civil law expert working in Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitative Munster ,was invited to give a lecture themed on “Labor Law in Civil Law- German Experiences ” in the meeting room on the 5th floor of Administrative Building. The lecture was hosted by Wu wenfang, the associate professor of SUFE Law School.

Before the beginning of the lecture , Prof. Heinz –Dietrich Steinmeyer gave us several thoughtful questions ,such as “Is labor law civil law?” , “Should labor law be part of civil code?” and so on.

The whole lecture was divided into two parts.

First , Prof. Heinz –Dietrich Steinmeyer introduced the basics and history of labor law in German. Through his speech, we could see a individual labor contract was always a service contract, such like a contract between an attorney and his client. He said when German Civil Code was established in 1990, there was no difference between the different subtypes of service contracts, so no special protection for employee or workers. It was the social blindness of German Civil Code. But the current situation is different.

During the following part, Prof. Heinz –Dietrich Steinmeyer mainly talked about the current situation about labor contract. First ,he pointed that the labor contract was a civil law contract needing special rules to protest the employee. He thought special rules for employees or workers were integrated relating to special rules for dismissal, periods of notice, form of notification and rule on safety at work. But Prof. Heinz –Dietrich Steinmeyer said the question is not all provisions concerning individual labor contracts are in German Civil Code now. So he gave us an interim result : On the one hand, individual labor contract is a civil law contract in the form of a service contract. On the other hand, rules which apply to protect workers can to be found in the German Civil Code and outside. Besides, compared with China, German has universal coverage of all dependent work by labor law but China uses another approach. Therefore, he pointed in German link between service contracts and all labor contracts was easier to conclude. After that, he made a conclusion for this lecture that labor law is civil law and a labor contract is a service contract.

At the end of the lecture, some students raised questions about this aspect. Prof. Heinz –Dietrich Steinmeyer gave them detailed and satisfying answers. The lecture ended up with warm applause.

Published：2015-10-16 Hit：497