Katherine Stone

Distinguished Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Professor Emerita

  • B.A. Harvard, 1970
  • J.D. Harvard, 1979
  • UCLA Law faculty since 2004

Professor Katherine Stone is a leading expert in labor and employment law in the United States. She has been a member of the faculty of the UCLA School of Law since 2004 and holds the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Distinguished Professorship, Emerita. Previously,  Professor Stone was the Anne Evans Estabrook Professor of Dispute Resolution at Cornell Law School and Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She has also taught at Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, New York University Law School, and the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School. Professor Stone received her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. She practiced law at Cohen Weiss & Simon and at Rabinowitz Boudin Standard Krinsky & Lieberman in New York City.

Professor Stone was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in 2008 and a Russell Sage Fellowship for 2008-2009 for her work on the changing nature of employment and the regulatory implications. Her 2004 book, From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation for the Changing Workplace (Cambridge University Press, 2004) described changes in the nature of work in the United States.  It was awarded the 2005 Michael Harrington Award from the American Political Science Association for the “outstanding book that best links scholarship to struggles for justice in the real world." The book was also the Finalist (Second Place) for the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Professor Stone's more recent book, Rethinking Workplace Regulation: Beyond the Standard Contract Of Employment (Katherine V.W. Stone and Harry Arthurs) (Russell Sage Foundation, 2013) described changes in employment laws to address the changing nature of employment in ten industrial countries.  Another book by Professor Stone was published in the fall of 2007, entitled Rethinking Comparative Labor Law: Bridging the Past and the Future (Vanderplas Publishing, 2007) (with Benjamin Aaron). Professor Stone also authored Globalization and Labor Standards Annotated Bibliography: An Essential Research Tool (Vanderplas Publishing, 2014)

In addition to her books in the field of Labor Law, Professor Stone is the founding and principal author of the leading casebook in the field of arbitration law. Her book, Arbitration Law (4th ed. Foundation Press, 2021) (with Alexander Colvin and Richard Bales) is now in its fourth edition.  Her earlier casebook,, Private Justice: Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Law (Foundation Press) was published in 2000).

Other recent scholarship by Professor Stone include:

  • Arbitration -- From Sacred Cow to Golden Calf: Three Eras in the History of the Federal Arbitration Act, 73 Labor Law Journal 66-86 (2022);
  • The Invisible Web at Work: Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Surveillance in the Workplace, 41 Berkeley Empl & Lab Law J 1 (2020) (with Richard A. Bales);
  • Unions and On-Demand Work in the United States, in Collective Bargaining and Collective Action (Julia Lopez Lopez, ed.)  (Hart Publisher, 2019);
  • New Social Policies to Address New Forms of Work, in Richard A. Bales and Charlotte Garden, Reviving American Labor: Labor Law For A Twenty-First Century Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2018);
  • The Bold Ambition of Justice Scalia’s Arbitration Jurisprudence: Keep Workers and Consumers Out of Court, 21 Empl. Rts & Empl. Pol’y J 189 (2017);
  • The Arbitration Epidemic: The Impact of the Evolving Law of Arbitration and Class Actions on Consumers and Employees, (with Alexander Colvin) (Economic Policy Institute Report, December, 2015);
  • Green Shoots in the Labor Market: A Cornucopia of Social Experiments, 36 Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 293 (2015);
  • A Right to Work in the United States: Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Possibilities, in The Right To Work: Legal And Philosophical Perspectives (Virginia Mantouvalou, Ed,) (Hart Publishing, 2014);
  • Globalization and the Middle Class, in Global Governance: Critical Legal Perspectives (Gráinne de Búrca, Claire Kilpatrick & Joanne Scott, eds) (Hart Publishing, 2014);
  • Procedure, Substance, and Power: Collective Litigation and Arbitration Under the Labor Law, 61 UCLA L. Rev. Discourses 164 (2013), available at http://www.uclalawreview.org;
  • The Decline in the Standard Employment Contract: A Review of the Evidence, in Rethinking Workplace Regulation: Beyond the Standard Labor Contract of Employment (Katherine V.W. Stone & Harry Arthurs, eds.) (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2013);
  • A Labor Law for the Digital Era," 21 Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 145 (2009);
  • John R. Commons and the Origins of Legal Realism; or, the Other Tragedy of the Commons, in Transformations in American Legal History (D. Hamilton & A. Brophy, eds.) (Harvard University Press, 2009);
  • Revisiting the At-Will Doctrine: Imposed Terms, Implied Terms, and the Normative World of the Workplace, 36 Industrial Law Journal 84 (2007);
  • Legal Protections for Workers in Atypical Employment Relationships, 27 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 251 (Fall, 2006);
  • Flexibilization, Globalization and Privatization: Three Challenges to Labor Rights in Our Time, 44 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 77-104 (2006).

Professor Stone teaches courses in labor law, employment law, labor and social policy, contract law, and arbitration law. She lectures widely in the U.S. and overseas on topics in labor and employment law and the law of arbitration.  She is an active participant in a number of organizations and committees, including the Labor Law Research Network (Executive Board), the Law and Society Association, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, and the International Society of Labor Law and Social Security (Executive Board). She has served on the United Nations Committee of Experts for its Decent Work Initiative.

Professor Stone is a frequent contributor to The American Prospect magazine, the Economic Policy Institute blog, and other on-line sites. She is the Founder and Editor of the Globalization and Labor Standards (GALS) Bibliographic Archive and Database, available at www.laborstandards.org, which includes abstracts of journal articles about international labor rights and global labor standards.

Bibliography

  • Books
    • Arbitration Law (with Richard Bales & Alexander J.S. Colvin ). 4th ed. Foundation Press (2021).
    • Rethinking Workplace Regulation: Beyond the Standard Contract of Employment (edited by Katherine V.W. Stone and Harry Arthurs). Russell Sage Foundation (2013).
    • Rethinking Comparative Labor Law: Bridging the Past and the Future (with Benjamin Aaron). Van De Plas Publishers (2007).
    • From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation for the Changing Workplace. Cambridge University Press (2004). Full Text
    • Private Justice: The Law of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Foundation Press (2000). Supplement: 2003.
    • Handbook for OCAW Women. Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (1973).
  • Articles And Chapters
    • Arbitration - From Sacred Cow to Golden Calf: Three Phases in the History of the Federal Arbitration Act, 73 Labor Law Journal 66 (2022).
    • The Invisible Web at Work: Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Surveillance in the Workplace (with Richard A. Bales), 41 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 1 (2020). Full Text
    • Rupture and Invention, in The Cambridge Handbook of U.S. Labor Law for the Twenty-First Century, 154-68 (edited by Richard Bales and Charlotte Garden, Cambridge University Press, 2019). Full Text
    • The Bold Ambition of Justice Scalia's Arbitration Jurisprudence: Keep Workers and Consumers out of Court, 21 Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal 189 (2017). Full Text
    • Green Shoots in the Labor Market: A Cornucopia of Social Experiments, 36 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 293 (2015). Full Text
    • Employment and Labor Regulation in Industrial Countries, in International Encyclopedia Of The Social And Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed, (edited by James Wright, Elsevier, forthcoming, 2015). Full Text
    • Procedure, Substance, and Power: Collective Litigation and Arbitration of Employment Rights, 61 UCLA Law Review Discourse 164 (2013). Full Text
    • The Decline in the Standard Employment Contract: Evidence from Ten Advanced Industrial Countries, in Rethinking Workplace Regulation: Beyond the Standard Contract of Employment, (edited by Katherine V.W. Stone and Harry Arthurs, Russell Sage Foundation, 2013). Full Text
    • Labor Activism in Local Politics: From CBAS to "CBAS" (with Scott Cummings), in The Idea of Labour Law, (edited by Guy Davidov and Brian Languille, Oxford University Press, 2011). Full Text
    • John R. Commons and the Origins of Legal Realism; or, the Other Tragedy of the Commons, in Vol. 2 Transformations in American Legal History, (edited by D. Hamilton & A. Brophy, Harvard University Press, 2011). Full Text
    • In the Shadow of Globalization: Changing Firm-Level and Shifting Employment Risks in the United States, in The Impact of Globalization on the United States , (edited by Beverly Crawford, Michelle Bertho, and Edward Fogarty, 3 volumes, Praeger, 2008).
    • A Labor Law for a Digital Era: The Future of Labor and Employment Law in the United States, UCLA Journal of Scholarly Perspectives (Summer, 2008).
    • Alternative Dispute Resolution, in Encyclopedia of Legal History, (edited by Stanley N. Katz, Oxford University Press, 2008). Full Text
    • Flexibilization, Globalization and Privatization: Three Challenges to Labor Rights in Our Time, in Regulating Labour in the Wake of Globalisation, (edited by Brian Bercusson and Cynthia Estlund, Hart Publishing, 2008).
    • The Future of Labor and Employment Law in the United States, in Encyclopedia of Labor and Employment Law and Econcomics, (edited by Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, S. Harris and O. Lobel, Elgar Publishing, 2008). Full Text
    • Dismissal Law in the United States: The Past and Present of At-Will Employment, International Collaborative on Social Europe. Paper 7 (2007). Journal Website Full Text
    • Arbitration - National, in Encyclopedia of Law and Society, (edited by David S. Clark, Sage Publications, 2007). Full Text
    • Labor ELAted: The Los Angeles Union Movement Revival, 46 Industrial Relations 675-81 (2007). Reviewing L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement, by Ruth Milkman.
    • Flexible Production and the Legal Regulation of Employment, Journal of the Society for Study of Social Problems (Japan, 2007).
    • Comparative Labor Law - Bridging the Past and the Future (with Benjamin Aaron), 29 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 377-91 (2007).
    • A Fatal Mis-Match: Employer-Centric Benefits in a Boundaryless Workplace, 11 Lewis & Clark Law Review 451-80 (2007). Full Text
    • A New Labor Law for a New World of Work: The Case for a Comparative-Transnational Approach, 28 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 565-81 (2007). Full Text
    • Revisiting the At-Will Doctrine: Imposed Terms, Implied Terms, and the Normative World of the Workplace, 36 Industrial Law Journal 84 (2007).
    • Rethinking Labour Law: Employment Protections for Boundaryless Workers, in Boundaries and Frontiers of Labour Law, (edited by Guy Davidov and Brian Languille, Hart Publishing, 2006). Full Text
    • Legal Protections for Workers for Atypical Employees: Employment Law for Workers Without Workplaces and Employees Without Employers, 27 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 251 (2006). Full Text
    • Employment Protection for Atypical Workers: Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Meeting, Association of American Law Schools Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law (with George C. Gonos, Stephen F. Befort, and Michelle A. Travis), 10 Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal 233-70 (2006).
    • Revisiting the At-Will Employment Doctrine: Imposed Terms, Implied Terms, and the Normative World of the Workplace,, UCLA School of Law, Public Law & Legal Theory Working Paper Series, No. 06-38 (2006). Full Text
    • Flexibilization, Globalization, and Privatization: Three Challenges to Labor Rights in Our Time, 44 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 77-104 (2006). Full Text
    • At Age Seventy, Should the National Labor Relations Act Be Retired: Proceedings of the 2005 Annual Meeting, Association of American Law Schools Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law (with Christopher Ruiz Cameron, Jeffrey S. Brand, Ellen Dannin, Jonathan Hiatt, and William B. Gould, IV), 9 Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal 121-46 (2005).
    • The New Face of Employment Discrimination, in Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus, (edited by Martha Fineman and Terence Dougherty, Cornell University Press, 2005).
    • Procedural Justice in the Boundaryless Workplace: The Tension Between Due Process and Public Policy, 80 Notre Dame Law Review 501-21 (2005).
    • Legal Regulation of the Changing Contract of Employment, 14 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 563-79 (2004). Abstract
    • The Steelworkers’ Trilogy and the Evolution of the Law of Labor Arbitration, in Labor Love Stories, (edited by Laura Cooper and Catherine Fisk, Foundation Press, 2004). Full Text
    • The New Face of Employment Discrimination, in NYU Selected Essays on Labor and Employment Law, 1 (edited by David Sherwyn and Michael U. Yelnosky, Kluwer, 2003).
    • Incoming Inequality in the Digital Era, European Labor Studies Working Paper Series, No. 13, (University of Catania, 2002).
    • Knowledge at Work: Disputes Over the Ownership of Human Capital in the Changing Workplace, 34 Connecticut Law Review 721-63 (2002). Full Text
    • Human Capital and Employee Mobility: A Rejoinder, 34 Connecticut Law Review 1233-47 (2002).
    • Employee Representation in the Boundary-less Workplace, 77 Chicago-Kent Law Review 773-819 (2002).
    • The New Psychological Contract: Implications of the Changing Workplace for Labor and Employment Law, 48 UCLA Law Review 519-661 (2001). Abstract
    • Dispute Resolution in the Boundaryless Workplace, 16 Ohio State Journal of Dispute Resolution 2001 (2001). Reprinted in Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Employment Arena: Proceedings of the New York University 53rd Annual Conference on Labor and Employment (edited by Samuel Estreicher, Kluwer Law International, 2001).
    • Employment Regulation, in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavior Sciences, (edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, Elsevier Science Ltd, 2001).
    • Labor and the American State: The Evolution of Labor Regulation in the United States, in The Rise And Development of Collective Labour Law, (edited by Marcel van der Linden and Richard Price, Peter Lang Publishers, 2000).
    • Rustic Justice: Community and Coercion Under the Federal Arbitration Act, 77 North Carolina Law Review 931-1036 (1999). Full Text
    • To the Yukon and Beyond: Local Laborers Afoot in the Global Labor Market, 3 Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law 93-103 (1999). Reprinted in Global Competition and the American Employment Landscape As We Enter The 21st Century: Proceedings of the New York University 52nd Annual Conference on Labor, (edited by Samuel Estreicher, Kluwer Law International, 2000). Full Text
    • Employment Arbitration Under the Federal Arbitration Act, in Employment Dispute Resolution and Worker Rights in the Changing Workplace, (edited by Jeffrey Keefe and Adrienne Eaton, Industrial Relations Research Association, 1999).
    • Labour and the American State: The Evolution of Labour Regulation in the United States, in Comparative Labor Law History, (edited by Richard Price and Marcel Van Der Linden, Kluwer Law, 1999).
    • The Prospects for Transnational Labor Regulation: Reconciling Globalization and Labor Rights in the EU and NAFTA, in Advancing Labour Law Theory in the Global Economy, (edited by Thomas Wilthagen, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschapen, Elsevier Science Publishers, 1998).
    • Mandatory Arbitration of Individual Employment Rights: The Yellow Dog Contract of the 1990s, 73 Denver Law Review 1017-50 (1996).
    • Labor and the Global Economy: Four Approaches to Transnational Labor Regulation, 16 Michigan Journal of International Law 987-1028 (1995). Reprinted in International Regulatory Competition and Coordination: Perspectives on Economic Regulation in Europe and the United States (William Bratton, Joeseph McCahery, and Sol Piccioto, Oxford University Press, 1996).
    • E.P. Thompson, Chronicler of the Dispossessed, 82 Georgetown Law Review 2025-37 (1994).
    • Policing Employment Contracts Within the Nexus-of-Contracts Firm, 43 University of Toronto Law Review 353 (1994).
    • The Legacy of Industrial Pluralism: The Tension Between Individual Employment Rights and the New Deal Collective Bargaining System, 59 University of Chicago Law Review 575 (1992). Reprinted in Labor Law (edited by David L. Gregory, New York University Press, 1993).
    • Labor Markets, Employment Contracts, and Corporate Change, in Corporate Accountability and Control , (edited by Sol Picciotto, Colin Scott, and Joseph McCahery, Clarendon Press, 1993).
    • Employees as Stakeholders Under State Non-Shareholder Constituency Statutes, 21 Stetson Law Review 45 (1991).
    • Labor Relations on the Airlines: The Railway Labor Act in the Era of Deregulation, 42 Stanford Law Journal 1485 (1990).
    • The Legal Regulation of Economic Weapons: A Comparative Perspective, Proceedings of the 43rd Annual New York University Conference in Labor Law 79-107 (1990).
    • The Future of Collective Bargaining, 58 University of Cincinnati Law Review 477 (1989). Reviewing Labor Law and Business Change – Theoretical and Transaction Perspectives, edited by Samuel Estreicher and Daniel Collins.
    • Labor and the Corporate Structure: Changing Conceptions and Emerging Possibilities, 55 University of Chicago Law Review 73 (Winter, 1988).
    • Welfare and the Worker: The Case of Big Steel, in Insights On American History, (edited by Norman Risjord, Harcourt, Brace Publishers, 1988).
    • Re-Envisioning Labor Law: A Reply to Professor Finkin, 45 Maryland Law Review (1986).
    • The Structure of Post-War Labor Relations, 90 Yale Law Journal 1509-80 (1981). Reprinted in 11 New York University Review of Law and Social Change 125 (1982-1983).
    • The Origins of Job Structures in the Steel Industry, 6 Review of Radical Political Economics 27 (1974). Reprinted in Labor Market Segmentation 27-84 (edited by Richard C. Edwards, Michael Reich, and David M. Gordon, Heath, 1975); in Root and Branch: The Rise of the Workers Movement (Fawcett, 1975); in Complex Organizations: Critical Perspectives (edited by Mary Zey-Ferrell and Michael Aiken, Scott, Forsman and Company, 1981); and translated in Swedish in Klass-Maktoch Arbetsdelning (Archives Studies, Stockholm, 1987).
    • After the Coffee Break, in Bitter Wages: Nader Task Force Report on Occupational Health, (edited by Joseph Page and Mary Winn O'Brien, Grossman Publishers, 1972).
    • Factory Versus Worker: Occupational Safety and Health as a Environmental Issue, in Earth Took Kit, (edited by Environmental Action, Pocket Books, 1971).
  • Other
    • Employment Law in a Changing Worl, 28 Cornell Law Forum 1-6 (2001).
    • Elizabeth B. Clark (Memorials with Ronald A. Cass, Thomas A. Green, Stanley N. Katz, Pnina Lahav, William W. Park, Aviam Soifer, and David J. Seipp), 78 Boston University Law Review 229 (1998).
    • The Feeble Strength of One: Why Individual Worker Rights Fail, 14 American Prospect (Summer, 1993).
    • Court Defining State Powers to Regulate Labor Issues, New Jersey Law Journal (Oct. 12, 1992).
    • The Loss of States' Labor, The Recorder (Oct. 7, 1992).
    • Are State's Labor's Lost?, 19 Legal Times (Sept. 14, 1992).
    • Labor Strains, in Commerce on the Calendar: A Preview of the Supreme Court's 1992-93 Labor Docket (American Law Media, 1992).
    • Legal Fictions, 35 Monthly Review (1983). Reviewing The Politics of Law, edited by D. Kairys.