TWO 

years ago I was invited to join a conference of law students from the Nordic countries and to discuss
with them the law of labour relations. There were many radical socialists among the members of the
conference. One after another young angry men attacked the present state of law in the Nordic countries
as the law of the ruling classes. The collective agreement was not, as I had been used to see it, a bargain
between two independent parties but a means of oppression. Not seldom the officers of the national union
were in collusion with management and the rest of the establishment. In the debate I answered that their
views were too narrow because there were at least the following four elements of law: (1) the law of
survival, (2) the law of toleration, (3) the laws of the ruling classes, and (4) laws based upon agreements.
Their laws represented only one of these four elements. Today I am going to try to develop this general
theme.