A legal perspective on the issue of the informal economy
Focusing on the ILO’s recent standards project designed to encourage the formalization of the informal economy, this article sets out to question the institutional approach by reflecting on law as an intelligibility criteria of the informal category. Based on a survey carried out in Togo, this contribution presents the numerous and complex ways in which labour law and commercial law are expressed in Togo’s two areas of informal work : the free export zone and the so-called informal sector. Given the specific over-formalization of the free export zone and the lack of public or union penetration in it, and the almost daily intervention of the State and unions in the informal sector, questions are raised on the relevance of designing global interventions in the informal economy, by making a distinction between informal employment and economic units, and the role of this often criticized concept that is nevertheless and paradoxically constantly used.