The Law of the Labour Market Industrialization, Employment, and Legal Evolution

This book examines the evolution of the contract of employment in Britain through an investigation of changes in its juridical form during and since the industrial revolution. The initial conditions of industrialization and the subsequent growth of a particular type of welfare state have decisively shaped the evolutionary path of British labor and social security law. The implications of this historical perspective for modern conceptualizations of the labor market, and in particular for current proposals to move beyond the employment model, are addressed.

Simon Deakin is Robert Monks Professor of Corporate Governance at the University of Cambridge.
Frank Wilkinson is Emeritus Reader in Applied Economics at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London.