France legalized strikes in 1864, seventy-three years after banning workers from organizing.
France recognized the legal right to strike in 1864 under the Ollivier Law, which repealed provisions of the Le Chapelier Law of 1791 that had criminalized workers' coalitions and collective action.1 For seventy-three years, French workers who organized or struck could face criminal prosecution. The 1864 law did not grant a positive right to strike but removed the criminal penalties that had made it illegal.
The right to strike as a constitutionally protected freedom emerged later. France enshrined it in the preamble to the 1946 Constitution.2 In the United States, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (the Wagner Act) protected the right of private-sector workers to organize and engage in collective action, including strikes.3
The International Labour Organization recognized the right to strike as a fundamental component of freedom of association, though it has never been codified in a standalone ILO convention.4 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) protects the right to form and join trade unions but does not explicitly name the right to strike.
In the United Kingdom, the Trade Disputes Act of 1906 gave unions legal protection from liability for strike actions. In Germany, the right to strike is protected under Article 9 of the Basic Law. In China, the right to strike was removed from the constitution in 1982. The existence or absence of a legally protected right to withhold labor remains one of the clearest markers of how a society structures the relationship between employers and workers.