This module will examine the crucial and fast-moving field of employment law and employment-related equality law. You will be encouraged not only to understand the relevant legal rules, but also to analyse the wider significance of these rules in reflecting and in shaping society and the economy.

This area of law engages with many issues which will affect most people during their working lives: Why does the law intervene to protect some categories of workers but not others? What rights does a worker have if he or she is dismissed? Does equality always mean treating people the same or does it sometimes require that difference be accommodated? The module will help you both to gain a deep understanding of the framework of UK employment and equality law and to appraise the law, not only on its own terms, but also from other points of view. The aim will be not only for you to gain insight into the substance and the mechanisms of employment law, but to have an understanding of how these interact with social, economic and political developments. This approach will facilitate a highly imaginative and contextual analysis of the law. From this relatively large field, the module will pick out central themes, such that the substantive areas covered will typically include: the contract of employment; regulation of dismissals; collective representation and the role of trade unions; human rights in the workplace; equality (or anti-discrimination) law related to areas such as sex, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, and age; regulation of the ‘work-life’ balance.

There are considerable overlaps and complementarities between this subject and others that you will already have studied and will study in your final year. It has important links to public law and especially the human rights component of that subject, European Union law, contract law and jurisprudence. The module also combines, on the one hand, a highly practical side, in that employment law remains a relevant area of legal practice, and, on the other hand, being outward-looking and intensely topical, in that a day barely goes by without a major news story touching upon employment or equality issues and how these are treated in law.

Reading lists and other materials will be provided for students registered on the module via online Moodle information pages.