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In my contribution to the symposium on Michael Wilkinson's new book, I focus in on his analysis of Hermann Heller's thinking regarding the state. Icompare Heller's writings with those of Hugo Sinzheimer (1875–1945), a legal scholar, practising lawyer and politician who was in a position in 1918-1920 to shape the new labour law of the Weimar Republic and who thereafter became a prominent commentator on that law. In particular, Ilook at two publications from 1933: Heller's Autoritärer Liberalismus and Sinzheimer's Die Krisis des Arbeitsrechts, or 'crisis of labour law'. I then consider the trade union movement's orientation to the state during the Weimar years, and what light this shone on Heller's and Sinzheimer's analysis. I conclude by identifying several questions raised by the Weimar debates for labour law, trade unions and employment relations that are of enduring importance today.

This short piece of writing introduces a collection of papers by Judy Fudge, Diamond Ashiagbor, Simon Deakin, Shelley Marshall, Jenny Julen Votinius and Robert Knegt. It outlines the aims of the collaborative research project from which the papers resulted, referring to the event at which they were first presented, and it summarises the topic and argument of each paper in order.