The Common Law Employment Relationship

A Comparative Study

Gordon Anderson, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Douglas Brodie, Professor, School of Law, University of Strathclyde, UK and Joellen Riley, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Australia

The contract of employment provides in many jurisdictions the legal foundation for the employment of workers. This book examines how the development of the common law under the influence of contemporary social and economic pressures has caused this contract to evolve.

‘A masterful, comprehensive comparison – not lacking in normative content – of the commonalities and differences in judge-made employment law in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, with occasional glances at Canada. It sweeps across the employment relationship exploring the intricate dialogue between courts and legislatures. Threaded throughout is the judicial treatment of managerial prerogative in the wake of legislative change. The book is a key source for students of comparative employment law.’
– Matthew W. Finkin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US

‘The law of the employment contract and relationship has been and remains a very fruitful subject for comparative research and writing as between Common Law jurisdictions. Gordon Anderson, Douglas Brodie, and Joellen Riley have, by taking a deeply combined perspective upon this topic from Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, made a very significant and historically intelligent contribution to the existing literature.’
– Mark Freedland, University of Oxford, UK