Nicolas Bueno Should We Have a New Human Right to Freedom From Work?
Dr. Nicolas Bueno is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Center for Human Rights Studies at the University of Zurich. He has previously held research posts at Columbia Law School and at the London School of Economics. His research focuses on International Human Rights Law, International Labor Law and the relationship between Business and Human Rights. He has provided advisory expertise to the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. A former recipient of a US Fulbright Scholarship, Bueno currently holds an Ambizione Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Federation (SNSF).
Area of Research
Economic and Social Rights, Future of Work, Post-Growth Economics, Business and Human Rights
since 2018
Senior Researcher and Lecturer
University of Zurich (Universität Zürich) (more details)
Center for Human Rights Studies
2018
Lecturer (Professor replacement)
University of Lausanne
International Economic Law, Law School
2018
Legal Advisor
Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)
2016-2017
Postdoctoral Researcher
London School of Economics and Political Science
Center for the Study of Human Rights
2015
Lecturer in Business and Human Rights
Dresden University of Technology (Technische Universität Dresden)
School of International Studies
2013-2015
Human Rights Advisor
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
2012-2013
Fulbright Doctoral Researcher (Democracy and Political Rights)
Columbia University, New York
Columbia Law School
2010-2012
Research and Teaching Assistant
University of Lausanne
Public International Law / Human Rights Law, Law School
since 2018
2014
Doctorate in Human Rights Law
University of Lausanne
Fulbright grantee at Columbia Law School
2009
Master of Public and International Law
University of Lausanne
& Freie Universität Berlin
2007
Bachelor of Swiss Law
University of Lausanne
- European Society of International Law (ESIL) (since 2018)
- Global Business and Human Rights (BHR) Scholars Association (since 2018)
- CIELO Laboral, Comunidad para la Investigación y el Estudio Laboral y Ocupacional (since 2017)
- Société Académique Vaudoise (SAV) (since 2015)
- Société Suisse de Droit International (since 2014)
- International Law Association (ILA), Swiss Section (since 2014)
Fellowships
- Ambizione Postdoctoral Fellowship Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (2018-2022)
- Early Postdoc. Mobility Fellowship Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (2016-2017)
- Public Interest Lawyer Fellowship Bertha Foundation (2014-2015)
- U.S. Fulbright Scholarship U.S. Department of State (2012-2013)
Prizes
- Best-Paper Award 2017 ‘From the Right to Work to Freedom from Work: Introduction to the Human Economy’ 33(4) IJCLL 464-488. International Association of Labour Law Journals (2017)
- Law Faculty Prize for Ph.D. Dissertation University of Lausanne (2016)
- The Human Wealth of Nations: Rethinking Economic Rights Project lead Swiss National Science Foundation - Ambizione Fellowship (2018-2022)
- Postdoctoral Research Grant Société Académique Vaudoise (2017)
- Human Global Economy and the Right to Just Conditions of Work Postdoctoral Research FNS Early Postdoc. Mobility Grant (2016-2017)
- Certificate of The Hague Academy of International Law (2010)
© René Strehler
Centre for Human Rights Studies (University of Zurich)
Zurich, SwitzerlandThe Centre for Human Rights Studies of the University of Zurich (UZHR) is an interdisciplinary scientific network with the goal of promoting and coordinating research, teaching and knowledge transfer in the area of human rights. Through the institutional concentration of the competencies of the participating experts from different disciplines, the UZHR contributes to making human rights knowledge available and promoting its development. The UZHR also cooperates with the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights (SCHR), within which it is responsible for the subject area of business and human rights.
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The importance of the human right to work is recognized by its inclusion in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this video, NICOLAS BUENO proposes that we reflect on its necessity and reimagine it as something more ambitious, as a new human right to freedom from work. Analyzing the historical context in which labor and fundamental economic rights emerged, Bueno observes that they were conceived to protect not the human being but, rather, the worker as an agent of economic production. Proposing a model which he calls “the human economy” aiming at reducing the need to rely on work, Bueno asks us to reflect upon what we actually create but also destroy through traditional work and how this impacts our need to work. He presents technological developments as both the cause of technological unemployment and source of work emancipation and challenges us to consider the ends of work rather than work as an end in itself.
LT Video Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10720
From the Right to Work to Freedom from Work: Introduction to the Human Economy
- Nicolas Bueno
- International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations
- Published in 2017
