Kahn-Freund wrote a pathbreaking article, contending that the Reichsarbeitsgericht (Empire Labour Court) was pursuing a "fascist" doctrine in 1931.

According to Kahn-Freund, fascism shared liberalism’s dislike of state intervention and preference for private ownership, social conservatism’s embrace of welfare provision for insiders, and collectivism’s view that associations are key actors in class conflict.

[2] In the case law, Kahn-Freund presented, the Reichsarbeitsgericht had been systematically undermining collective rights in work councils, demanding that trade unionists owed a duty to the Betrieb (the workplace) which was indistinguishable from the employer.

On the other hand, the court had demanded that individual workplace rights (for instance, to social insurance) were strongly protected.

Kahn-Freund continued working as a judge until 1933, shortly after Hitler seized the chancellorship in coalition with the conservative DNVP.

[4] He laid the groundwork of a philosophical approach toward Labour Law in British scholarship, which had hitherto been characterised by empiricism.