Legislating Just Cause, 1980-92

Abstract

This article analyzes the concept of just cause that appears in the arbitration literature and in common law, and it goes on to examine the extent and nature of just cause in state legislative proposals for employment-termination law. The research summarizes the results of a survey of the fifty states between 1980 and 1993 to establish the extent to which bills on employment termination for employees of privately owned, nonunionized firms incorporate the just-cause standard. This article provides evidence on the extent to which state bills adopt the form of just cause stipulated in the Uniform Law Commissioners' Model Employment Termination Act, analyzes the content of just-cause proposals, and evaluates the content of current proposals against established just-cause standards.