The Contract of Employment

Abstract

Abstract The contract of employment is the central legal institution of modern English employment law. It provides the foundation upon which most statutory employment rights are constructed; it provides a conduit for the implementation of norms negotiated in collective bargaining; and it continues to provide a contractual structure for the terms and conditions of employment for a significant proportion of the working population. The Contract of Employment provides a comprehensive treatise on the theoretical and doctrinal aspects of the English law of the contract of employment in the common law world. Part I examines the theoretical context to the contract of employment, studying its structure and development from a wide variety of theoretical and comparative perspectives. Part II provides an exposition and analysis of the doctrinal aspects of the contract of employment, which progresses from the formation of the contract through its content or terms and conditions to its termination and post-employment obligations, and to the remedies for its breach and wrongful termination. The legal analysis seeks to be informed by a keen sense of the modern labour market context of the contract of employment, and to be sensitive to contemporary challenges such as precariousness, the interaction with migration law, the role of legislation in the contract of employment, and the decline of collective bargaining.