Cynthia Estlund
- Crystal Eastman Professor of Law
- cynthia.estlund@nyu.edu
- Vanderbilt Hall 403B • 212.998.6184
AREAS OF RESEARCH
Employment Law, Labor Law, Labor Standards and the Regulation of Work, Transnational Labor Law (esp. re: China)
Cynthia Estlund is the Crystal Eastman Professor at the New York University School of Law, and a leading scholar of labor and employment law. In addition to her two co-edited volumes and over 80 articles, book chapters, reviews, and essays, she has written four books: Automation Anxiety: Why and How to Save Work (Oxford University Press, 2021), takes seriously the prospect of a future of less work, and examines what’s at stake and how to spread the gains and mitigating the losses that such a future might entail. A New Deal for China’s Workers? (Harvard University Press, 2017) offers a comparative perspective on reform and its limits in the wake of rising labor unrest in China. Regoverning the Workplace: From Self-Regulation to Co-Regulation (Yale University Press, 2010) mines current trends in regulatory practice to suggest a potential path toward participatory workplace governance in a post-collective bargaining era. In Working Together: How Workplace Bonds Strengthen a Diverse Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2003), she argues that the convergence of diversity and close interaction makes the workplace a distinctive locus of social integration, with important implications for democratic theory and the law of work.
Estlund got her BA (summa cum laude) from Lawrence University and her JD from Yale Law School. After clerking for Judge Patricia M. Wald on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and practicing law for several years, Estlund entered law teaching. Before moving to NYU in 2006, she taught at the University of Texas School of Law and Columbia Law School.“Are Unions a Constitutional Anomaly?”
Courses
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Employment Law
This course concerns the law governing the employment relationship in the United States, primarily in the non-union private sector. We will discuss the evolution of the employment contract, especially with regard to job security and public policy limitations on the employer’s power to discharge and manage employees. Along the way we will also discuss the law of employment discrimination; constitutional rights of public employees; post-employment restraints; and regulation of wages and hours and/or workplace health and safety. Throughout the course, we will be assessing competing models of contract, regulation, and litigation, and their impact on work life, labor markets, and the society at large.
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Labor Law
This course examines U.S. law governing collective labor relations in the private sector. Our primary focus will be on the National Labor Relations Act and the processes of union organizing and collective bargaining that the NLRA establishes. But we will also consider historical and comparative perspectives on labor law, as well as emerging forms of worker organization, union strategies, and reform proposals that have arisen in the face of an aging labor law regime.
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Torts
Civil liability for breach of duty causing harm to persons or property. Intentional and unintentional injury; fault and no-fault theories of liability; strict products liability; theories and analysis of causation.
Publications
- A New Deal for China's Workers? (Harvard University Press, 2017)
- "Are Unions a Constitutional Anomaly?," 114 Mich. L. Rev. 169 (2015)
- "Just the Facts: The Case for Workplace Transparency," 63 Stan. L. Rev. 351 (2011)
- Regoverning the Workplace: From Self-Regulation to Co-Regulation (Yale University Press, 2010)
- Working Together: How Workplace Bonds Strengthen a Diverse Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2003)
Education
- JD, Yale Law School, 1983
- BA (Government), Lawrence University, summa cum laude, 1978
Honors and Activities
- Annual Higgins Visitor, Lewis & Clark College of Law, 2008
- Podell Distinguished Teaching Award, NYU School of Law, 2008
- Samuel M. Kaynard Award for Excellence in the Fields of Labor & Employment Law, Hofstra University School of Law, 2008
In the Media
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Power at Work
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AccelPro's "Employment Law" podcast
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AccelPro Employment Law podcast
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