Abstract

The essay contains a reflection on a number of judicial decisions about labour law issues within a thirty years period that encompasses the life span of the journal "Lavoro e diritto". The author analyzes a number of paramount topics which reveal the relationship between the jurisprudential trends of the Courts, the economic and political context and the ideas circulating among legal scholars during that period. In the final part of the essay, devoted to the labour law of the new century, the author highlights the attitudes of judges when facing the weakening of workers' rights and the reduction of their role as guardians of such rights.