Law as a technology of exclusion: the legal construction of racialized and gendered work relations through the case study of international labour law in the first half of the twentieth century

Abstract This article explores the role of labour law in processes of racialization and gendering of work. It argues that labour law not only protects certain forms of work (law as a protective mechanism), but also systematically excludes other forms of work, especially those performed by racialized and gendered individuals (law as a technology of exclusion). The article traces the oscillation between protection and exclusion in international labour law (ILL) from the interwar period to the post‐Second World War era. During the interwar period, the International Labour Organization (ILO) codified the ‘standard employment relationship’ (SER) as a universal model, while simultaneously codifying racialized and gendered work as less valued by relying on biological justifications. After the Second World War, the ILO shifted from a model grounded in biological determinism to a paradigm based on human rights and anti‐discrimination law. However, this shift did not eradicate law's function as a technology of exclusion but rather reconfigured it through two mechanisms: externalization and individualization. The article sheds light on both mechanisms and argues that, ultimately, they obscure law's active role in perpetuating dynamics of racialization and gendering of work.