Job security, precarious work, and freedom of contract

Modern labour markets appear segmented into good jobs for full-time employment and bad jobs, which are precarious and poorly remunerated. To achieve flexibility and save on labour costs, employers use strategies such as casualisation and outsourcing of work. Statutory employment law rights such as protection against redundancy and unfair dismissal generally apply only to good jobs. Using their freedom of contract to turn jobs into precarious work relations, employers can avoid legal protections for job security. Although the courts sometime challenge bogus contractual terms as shams that conceal a standard contract of employment, courts cannot in general override what the employer and worker have agreed. The segmented labour market and the growing degree of exclusion from statutory employment rights are forms of structural injustice. The remedy must lie in Parliamentary legislation that controls and replaces contractual arrangements for precarious work

Performing Form: A Dialogue between Performance and Analysis

What happens when a pianist who is not a trained musicologist, and a composer with a background in musical analysis, discuss the piano music of Schoenberg? In this article, Pina Napolitano and Hugh Collins Rice explore that dialogue.   Their main focus is the Klavierstück Op.33b.  They discuss the relationship between the performance and analysis of key passages, and their impact on the perception of form. From this discussion moves to Op.33a and three of the Op.23 Klavierstücke. The authors discover analysis and performance to provide intriguingly complementary and enriching perspectives.  Passages which had clear analytical explanations were often problematic in performance; conversely music which was difficult to interpret analytically could be entirely natural for the performer.  The authors conclude that these differences are not problematic, but combine to enhance their respective experiences of the music.  What happens when a pianist who is not a trained musicologist, and a composer with a background in musical analysis, discuss the piano music of Schoenberg? In this article, Pina Napolitano and Hugh Collins Rice explore that dialogue.   Their main focus is the Klavierstück Op.33b.  They discuss the relationship between the performance and analysis of key passages, and their impact on the perception of form. From this discussion moves to Op.33a and three of the Op.23 Klavierstücke. The authors discover analysis and performance to provide intriguingly complementary and enriching perspectives.  Passages which had clear analytical explanations were often problematic in performance; conversely music which was difficult to interpret analytically could be entirely natural for the performer.  The authors conclude that these differences are not problematic, but combine to enhance their respective experiences of the music.

Does Labour Law Need Philosophical Foundations? (Introduction)

This is the introductory chapter of the book Philosophical Foundations of Labour Law (Collins, Lester, Mantouvalou eds, OUP, 2018). It argues that labour law needs philosophical foundations and explains that careful reflection about underlying moral and political principles and values can serve to provide firm foundations and a clear sense of direction for labour law. At a time when many appear to doubt the value of labour laws and workers’ rights at all, the chapter suggests that it is necessary to reassert that the values and principles that provide the foundations for a system of labour law are not those of a narrow special interest group, but rather embrace interpretations of key values such as freedom, autonomy, dignity, equal respect, democracy, and social justice

Intimations of conformity in a network society: the quality of goods and compliance with labour standards

European contract law requires goods marketed to consumers to satisfy various standards such as to be fit for the purposes for which such goods are ordinarily used and to 'possess such qualities and performance capabilities as the buyer may expect' (Art. 100(g) Common European Sales Law (CESL)). Although the law tends to focus on the qualities of the goods in themselves, my question is whether the reasonable expectations of consumers include reference to the means of production up the supply chain and an expectation that the goods will not be produced through the use of labour that is employed under conditions that violate European Union (EU) labour laws, international labour standards, and human rights law. For instance, should consumers have the expectation that the clothes we purchase are not produced through child labour, or that the mobile phones we buy are not produced under working conditions that breach basic standards such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and EU rules on working time, or that the tomatoes we eat are not picked by labourers working under conditions of servitude contrary to Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights? If consumers have such expectations and EU contract law can protect them, the law may provide a vehicle for addressing some of the worst instances of labour exploitation worldwide

Is a relational contract a legal concept?

The idea of a relational contract has been discussed in sociology, economics and law. The concept has recently been adopted in a trilogy of decisions in the High Court in the United Kingdom. The paper addresses two questions. What does the idea of a relational contract mean? If the notion of relational contract applies to a contract, does it have particular legal implications for the transaction, such as an expansion of mandatory or supplementary duties of disclosure and obligations to perform in good faith? The paper proposes a concept of relational contracts that emphasises the economic significance of indeterminate implicit obligations and which supports the development of a contextual approach to interpretation and the insertion of implied obligations of co-operation and mutual trust and confidence

Implied terms: the foundation in good faith and fair dealing

With the aim of clarifying English law of implied terms in contracts and explaining their basis in the idea of good faith in performance, it is argued first that two, but no more, types of implied terms can be distinguished (terms implied in fact and terms implied by law), though it is explained why these types are frequently confused. Second, the technique of implication of terms is distinguished in most instances from the task of interpretation of contracts. Third, it is argued that ideas of good faith and fair dealing should be acknowledged as central to the implication of terms, though different notions of good faith apply to terms implied in fact and terms implied by law. Finally, it is possible to identify a group of contracts (networks) that share an intensified economic logic of both competition and co-operation arising from their structure as a quasi-integrated production regime which require intensified duties of loyalty and co-operation implied by law

Implied terms: the foundation in good faith and fair dealing

With the aim of clarifying English law of implied terms in contracts and explaining their basis in the idea of good faith in performance, it is argued first that two, but no more, types of implied terms can be distinguished (terms implied in fact and terms implied by law), though it is explained why these types are frequently confused. Second, the technique of implication of terms is distinguished in most instances from the task of interpretation of contracts. Third, it is argued that ideas of good faith and fair dealing should be acknowledged as central to the implication of terms, though different notions of good faith apply to terms implied in fact and terms implied by law. Finally, it is possible to identify a group of contracts (networks) that share an intensified economic logic of both competition and co-operation arising from their structure as a quasi-integrated production regime which require intensified duties of loyalty and co-operation implied by law

2D and 3D photonic crystal materials for photocatalysis and electrochemical energy storage and conversion

This perspective reviews recent advances in inverse opal structures, how they have been developed, studied and applied as catalysts, catalyst support materials, as electrode materials for batteries, water splitting applications, solar-to-fuel conversion and electrochromics, and finally as photonic photocatalysts and photoelectrocatalysts. Throughout, we detail some of the salient optical characteristics that underpin recent results and form the basis for light-matter interactions that span electrochemical energy conversion systems as well as photocatalytic systems. Strategies for using 2D as well as 3D structures, ordered macroporous materials such as inverse opals are summarized and recent work on plasmonic–photonic coupling in metal nanoparticle-infiltrated wide band gap inverse opals for enhanced photoelectrochemistry are provided