The evolution of the idea of a labour law subject in Australian legal scholarship: (And what was regulating "labour" or "work" before labour law as we wnow it?)

Australia's economic and industrial systems were intensively regulated through extensive labour laws more or less since the early 1900s. These systems, based on the conciliation and arbitration of industrial disputes (or similar concepts), regulated terms and conditions of employment, secured the rights of trade unions and limited industrial action among other things. However, notwithstanding this wide-ranging industrial and labour regulation, the emergence of an 'idea' of a labour law subject which would draw together the relevant subject matter of a field of policy, and which could be offered as a subject taught in institutions of higher learning was very slow in evolving. This paper examines that evolution, and the state of the subject as it stands today.