New controversies of living labour and social security law: in magister memoriam Mr. Efrén Borrajo

Abstract

Professor Efrén Borrajo Dacruz has been one of the great masters of labor law and social security law, in Spain and in the rest of Europe. Unfortunately, he passed away in May of this year. He was a jurist with a great knowledge of the discipline of labor law and social security, exhibiting a vast culture, not only legal. Among his greatest contributions to legal-social science is the attribution of a great role to the so-called "living law": "Law is made for life, not life for law", he frequently said. He learned this lesson from the jurists of classical Rome, whom he admired for their concrete case method, as did the great American realist jurists. In order to demonstrate the wisdom of the great professor, we have selected in this study, carried out as a tribute to his professional figure and his intellectual and personal honesty, five legal controversies of the utmost relevance, including legislation (recent reform regulations) to leave full record of the decisive influence of jurisprudential law. Namely: (1) the right to self-determination of transgender people in labor relations, (2) the application of the gender judging perspective in the unemployment subsidy for people over 52 years of age, (3) the last insolvency reform and issues of business transfer of insolvent units, (4) the reform of the immigration regulations to facilitate the hiring of non-EU immigrants and (5) the favor of the most recent judicial doctrine for more guaranteed forms of guardianship (compensation dissuasive, mandatory reinstatement) against arbitrary dismissal.