Sham Self-Employment in the Supreme Court
Sham Self-Employment in the Supreme Court
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最高法院的虚假自营职业
DOI：
10.1093/indlaw/dws021
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发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
1
通讯作者：
Alan L. Bogg
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Alan L. Bogg
提供工作的合同通常是如何谈判的？这个问题的答案非常重要，它是最高法院在Autoclenz有限公司诉Belcher和其他人（Autoclenz）一案中就个人就业合同阐述广泛的虚假原则的核心。霍夫曼勋爵在卡迈克尔诉国家电力公司一案中描绘了一幅典型的承包做法的图景--让我们称之为标准图景--他指出，雇佣合同部分是书面的，部分是口头的，部分是通过一种随着时间的推移而演变的行为模式确立的，这并非“不典型的”。在这种情况下，法院可以从广泛的相关证据中作出推论，以客观地确定当事人之间达成了什么协议。近年来，这一标准描述作为对订约惯例现实的描述，似乎越来越不恰当。Autoclenz的合同证明了这种压力。这是一份由雇主起草的综合性书面合同，提交给工人，要么接受，要么放弃。本文探讨了最高法院的做法，在这种合同中的“假”条款的问题。它的结论是，Autoclenz有一个根本的潜力，扰乱了一般合同法的既定规则和原则在个人就业合同领域的适用，并确实标志着一个相对自主的个人就业合同的普通法的出现。
How are contracts for the provision of work typically negotiated? The answer to this question matters a great deal, and it was central to the Supreme Court’s elaboration of a broad sham doctrine in the context of contracts for personal employment in Autoclenz Limited v Belcher and Others (Autoclenz). One picture of typical contracting practice – let us call it the standard picture – was painted by Lord Hoffmann in Carmichael v National Power Plc., where he observed that it was not ‘untypical’ of employment contracts that they would be partly written, partly oral and partly established by a pattern of evolving conduct over time. In this situation, the court can draw inferences from a wide range of relevant evidence to ascertain what, in objective terms, was agreed between the parties. In recent years, this standard picture has appeared increasingly strained as a description of the reality of contracting practices. The contract in Autoclenz demonstrates the strain. This was a comprehensive written contract drafted by the employer and presented to the worker on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. This article examines the Supreme Court’s approach to the problem of ‘sham’ terms in such contracts. It concludes that Autoclenz has a radical potential to disrupt the application of settled rules and principles of general contract law in the sphere of personal employment contracts, and indeed marks the emergence of a relatively autonomous common law of the personal employment contract.