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Employment status and human rights: an emerging approach

Employment status and human rights: an emerging approach
Employment status and human rights: an emerging approach

The question of who falls within the ‘personal scope’ of employment law is of fundamental importance to the field but remains highly contested. This article makes a novel contribution by examining the implications of human rights in this context and advocating a fundamental shift in the courts’ approach to personal scope. It suggests that where employment legislation functions to protect human rights the scope of these statutes should, at the level of normative principle, be construed inclusively with any exclusions needing to be justified. The article then argues that the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 is to introduce a new human rights approach to employment status into English law which closely reflects this proposal. It sets out the frameworks that domestic courts should apply, and critically assesses a line of recent cases which illustrate the emergence and significance of this human rights approach to personal scope.

0026-7961
1166-1196
Atkinson, Joe
344fb3a5-85d2-489a-86ef-d657bcb857bc
Atkinson, Joe
344fb3a5-85d2-489a-86ef-d657bcb857bc

Atkinson, Joe (2023) Employment status and human rights: an emerging approach. Modern Law Review, 86 (5), 1166-1196. (doi:10.1111/1468-2230.12803).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The question of who falls within the ‘personal scope’ of employment law is of fundamental importance to the field but remains highly contested. This article makes a novel contribution by examining the implications of human rights in this context and advocating a fundamental shift in the courts’ approach to personal scope. It suggests that where employment legislation functions to protect human rights the scope of these statutes should, at the level of normative principle, be construed inclusively with any exclusions needing to be justified. The article then argues that the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 is to introduce a new human rights approach to employment status into English law which closely reflects this proposal. It sets out the frameworks that domestic courts should apply, and critically assesses a line of recent cases which illustrate the emergence and significance of this human rights approach to personal scope.

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Modern Law Review - 2023 - Atkinson - Employment Status and Human Rights An Emerging Approach - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 February 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 March 2023
Published date: 28 March 2023

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 483077
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483077
ISSN: 0026-7961
PURE UUID: 01ccd6e1-9b1e-4b05-8978-ca4d65417117
ORCID for Joe Atkinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5207-2231

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Date deposited: 23 Oct 2023 16:32
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:14

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Author: Joe Atkinson ORCID iD

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