Les normes internationales du travail: un patrimoine pour l'avenir. Mélanges en l'honneur de Nicolas Valticos

This is a collection of legal essays prepared as a tribute to the memory of the charismatic personality of former Assistant Director-General and Chief of the Standards Department Nicolas Valticos (1918-2003), and in recognition of his monumental contribution to the furtherance of the Organization’s noble objectives. The essays are exclusively dedicated to international labour standards and cover numerous aspects of standards-related issues from both a retrospective and a forward-looking perspective, following the example of Valticos, whose writings so skilfully combined orthodoxy and perspicacity, continuity and vision.

The normative action of the ILO has undoubtedly found in the person of Nicolas Valticos one of its most eloquent advocates and lifetime servants. As Juan Somavia writes in the book’s preface, “rarely have officials been identified to such an extent with a specific field of ILO action such as Nicolas Valticos was with the Organization’s standards-related activities”.

The various contributions are arranged in four thematic categories, coinciding with the four subjects of predilection in Valticos’ prolific bibliography: the evolution of the supervisory system in its endless quest for effectiveness; freedom of association as a cornerstone principle and constant driving force of ILO action; the oft-debated relationship between internationally-accepted standards and domestic legislation; and the constitutional dimension of standard-setting activities. A final fifth section contains a number of papers generally reflecting on the future articulation of standards, their relevance and impact in the context of the challenges to come.