It’s Strategic! Riders, Unions, and Litigation in Italy

Recent developments in the gig or platform economy have generated unprecedented interest in strategic litigation, raising important theoretical questions about what qualifies litigation as strategic and what strategic litigation means for collective action. This article draws on the existing debate on strategic litigation and mobilization for riders’ rights to highlight an important dimension of the practice: namely, the intermediary role played by lawyers between what happens in and outside the courts, as they translate social claims into legal ones. It maps litigation efforts, situating them in a wider context of collective action, and takes advantage of the privileged viewpoint that lawyers provide on litigation to address two crucial questions: the ‘why’ question, which concerns the objectives underlying strategic litigation, at least as perceived by lawyers, and the ‘how’ question, which aims to explore the way the strategy is designed and implemented, as well as the relations between lawyers and trade unions in terms of decision-making.