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United Kingdom Leading Case illegalityconstruction interpretation

Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher

[2011] UKSC 41
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom
CourtUK Supreme Court
Year2011
StatusBinding authority

Summary

Courts may look beyond contractual labels to determine true employment status, applying a purposive approach to defeat sham self-employment arrangements.

Key Principle

employment status; purposive approach defeats sham self-employment

Area of Law

Employment

Related Cases

Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Barker (2014) 253 CLR 169

Australian law does not recognise an implied duty of mutual trust and confidence in employment contracts, departing from the UK position in Malik v BCCI.

Byrne v Australian Airlines Ltd (1995) 185 CLR 410

The High Court considered the implication of terms into employment contracts, including whether a term of good faith or fair dealing could be implied at common law to constrain unfair dismissal.

Tadjudin v Bank of America NA (2016) 19 HKCFAR 690

An employer must not exercise contractual discretion irrationally or in bad faith; HK leading authority equivalent to Braganza on implied limitations on contractual discretion.

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