THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR STANDARDS' FLEXIBILITY AS A FACTOR OF THEIR EFFECTIVENESS
The article contains analysis of flexibility as an important factor of the international labour standards' effectiveness. This factor is explored in terms of substantive, form and implementation flexibility. Substantive flexibility is defined as a vague language or special «flexibility clauses» of international treaties aimed at facilitation of their further ratification. The author suggests that ILO policy in this respect is excessively flexible, without reasonable justification by the higher probability of the Conventions' ratification. The form flexibility is understood as the adoption of international labour standards in form of either international treaties or as «soft-law» instruments. The experience of drafting of the ILO Maritime Labour Convention of 2006 (MLC) is treated as a rather successful one in respect of combination of elements of a binding treaty and a soft-law act in the single instrument. The mechanism of amendment of the Maritime Labour Convention is also interesting in respect of the possibility to apply the amended Convention towards the state that ratified its earlier text - in a «semi-automatic» manner. The implementation flexibility follows from the politics of international organisations concerning the control over the adopted international labour standards. Despite the fact that the ILO's possibilities to control the application of its instruments are rather limited, the Organisation doesn't make full use of even the available means of control. The ILO is significantly more flexible in application of its standards than the European regional organisations, namely, the Council of Europe and the European Union.