Labor in Hard Times examines how organized labor in Turkey and the United Kingdom turned to international human rights law in response to domestic repression and neoliberal restructuring. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a unique database of labor rights cases, the book traces how workers used litigation at the European Court of Human Rights not just to win legal victories, but to build political pressure, assert legitimacy, and reclaim space for collective action. Focusing on public sector unionists in Turkey and blacklisted construction workers in the UK, it offers a rare view of how grassroots activists and lawyers mobilized international law as a tactical resource: Workers engaged rights discourse strategically to pursue concrete goals, while remaining rooted in class-based solidarity. With vivid case studies, this book speaks to readers interested in international courts, human rights, and the evolving strategies of labor movements in an era of democratic backsliding and global inequality.

‘Labor in Hard Times is much more than a book about workers' legal mobilization at the European Court of Human Rights. It is a study of the relationship between domestic movements, their governments, and international courts. Kahraman employs a combination of paired comparison, historical analysis, and a study of the court's records to show how these actors interact, both in general, and in the archetypical cases of Turkey and the United Kingdom. This fine book should be on the bookshelves of scholars of comparative labor movements, international courts, and the relations between them.'

Sidney Tarrow - author of Power in Movement (Cambridge University Press)

‘Labor in Hard Times looks beyond courts' direct remedies to show how international litigation has shaped the motivation, membership, and material and symbolic resources of the workers' movement. Kahraman's rich multi-method analysis moves beyond long-standing theoretical divides to reveal the hidden political and social effects of international courts.'

Lisa Vanhala - Professor in Political Science, University College London; author of Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage (University of Chicago Press)

‘A stellar work of comparative political and legal scholarship, Kahraman moves fluidly across multiple layers of international law to reveal the actors and institutions shaping human rights in the workplace. She shows us how labor activists and their lawyers act with savvy and strategy, probing international courts for responsiveness and reach, and in doing so, charting new legal pathways for movement success. At a time when international law is under threat, this book shows that – as ever – it is mobilization from below that provides its future.’

Mikael Rask Madsen - Professor and Director of iCourts, Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen, and author of International Court Authority

‘Filiz Kahraman's Labor in Hard Times makes a tremendous contribution to knowledge about the impacts of legal mobilization in international human rights courts, and labor movement mobilization in particular. This book shows how trade union activists in the UK and Turkey made strategic use of the European Court of Human Rights and human rights framings of labor union demands to overcome a weakening political environment for trade unions and authoritarian repression in their respective domestic contexts. Kahraman teaches us the valuable lesson that international court rulings can strengthen labor unions' long-term strategic capacity beyond the narrow victories or losses in the cases trade unionists submit to those courts. Scholars of international courts, human rights, and labor movements, as well as legal practitioners and labor activists, will find this book valuable.’

Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom - Professor of Political Science and author of Courting Gender Justice: Russia, Turkey, and the European Court of Human Rights