Since the publication of the first edition in 1970, Labour and Employment Law: Cases, Materials, and Commentary has become the standard resource for labour and employment law courses across Canada. Prepared by a national group of academics–the Labour Law Casebook Group–the book has continued to evolve with each new edition, reflecting the considerable changes that have occurred in the Canadian workplace and the laws that governs it.

Over the past number of years, the prominence of jurisprudence based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has increased across the spectrum of worker-employer and union-employer relations. In recognition of this trend, all substantial discussion of Charter issues has now been consolidated in a new Chapter 11, entitled “The Constitutionalization of Collective Bargaining Law.” This is the most important structural change in the new edition.

Most of the other changes in the eighth edition have been made in response to many developments in labour and employment law that have occurred since publication of the seventh edition in 2004. They are designed to help students assess both the current and longer-term importance of these trends. New cases and other source material have been added, and material that appeared in previous editions has in many instances been adapted. The result is a comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date volume that benefits from over 40 years of use in law schools across the country, while at the same time taking advantage of cutting-edge scholarship in assessing issues of contemporary concern.