Using Legal Empowerment for Labour Rights in India
通过历史视角梳理印度法律赋权运动的三波浪潮，揭示劳工如何争取法律承认并应对福利国家的不均衡，强调法律认可的象征性力量，即使执行不完美也有意义。
This paper brings labour back into the literature on legal empowerment against poverty. Employing a historical lens, I outline three waves of legal movements. Each wave is distinguished by its timing, the state-level target, and the actors involved. In all three waves, legal empowerment was won, not bestowed. Labour played a significant role, fighting in each subsequent wave for an expanded identity to address exclusions. Drawing from the Indian case, this paper’s findings highlight the evolving strategies of legal empowerment movements vis à vis uneven welfare states. They underline the significance of symbolic power of legal recognition, even in the absence of perfect implementation. Finally, they highlight contemporary workers as an overlooked, identity-based group that addresses the intersectionalities between class and ascriptive characteristics.