This paper reports findings from a survey designed to estimate the numbers excluded from employment protection in the UK by the ‘employee’ test and to examine, through qualitative research, perceptions of the process of employment contracting. The survey evidence shows that approaching one...

The harmonisation of company law in Europe has done little to remove diversity in the legal systems of the member states. The impact of directives has been significant in certain areas, such as basic accounting standards and the rules of capital maintenance. Nevertheless, the continuing...

We use data from REPONSE 2004 and WERS 2004 to analyse whether approaches to HRM differ according to whether an establishment is part of a company with a stock exchange listing. In both countries we find that listing is positively associated with teamworking and performance-related pay, while in...

This paper argues that in order to facilitate informed debate and to develop a coherent social and employment policy in Europe, it is necessary to clarify the different meanings of the term 'labour market flexibility'. It questions whether the deregulation of the labour market is an inherent...

This essay argues that the Enron affair has been misunderstood as a failure of monitoring, with adverse consequences for the drafting of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Higgs report. Where Enron’s board failed was in underestimating the risks that were inherent in the company’s business plan...

The use of reflexive forms of regulation is growing within the EU, in particular as the open method of coordination ('OMC') is applied to a growing number of contexts including employment policy, social inclusion, enterprise promotion, environmental protection, energy policy, and fundamental...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance for legal thought of recent developments in evolutionary theory which are associated with the notion of 'memetics'. 'Memetics' aims to account for processes of cultural transmission and change using a version of the 'genetic metaphor'....

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Using a panel dataset covering a range of developed and developing countries, we show that common law systems were more protective of shareholder interests than civil law ones in the period 1995-2005. However, civilian systems were catching up, suggesting that civil law origin was not much of an...