Books and Journals
Textbooks
- Print Books - Employment Law is at 344.4101 EU employment law at 344.401 (2nd Floor)
- eBooks on Law Trove. Law Trove provides access to the full text of about 200 law textbooks published by Oxford University Press, including employment law titles. You can browse by subject (select Employment) or search for a particular title.
- Law Trove includes Selwyn's Law of Employment and Smith & Wood's Employment Law.
Journals
UK:
Industrial Relations Law Reports
International:
ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law (USA)
Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal (USA)
Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal (USA)
Websites
A valuable free source is BAILII, the British and Irish Legal information Institute. It provides free access to full text UK judgments and legislation on a wide range of subjects including employment law and also links to other free World Law databases. Jurisdictions covered in these resources include Commonwealth countries eg. Australia and Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the USA and South Africa.
The following represent a sample of the available quality individual web resources on employment law:
ACAS – Independent UK body to resolve industrial disputes. Includes access to full text policy discussion papers.
Ageism in the Workplace (Age UK)
DWP: department for work and pensions (UK) - Official UK website
Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal
International Labour Organization (ILO). Includes access to full text working papers.
Labour Relations Agency (Northern Ireland)
NATLEX – database on national labour, social security and related human rights in different jurisdictions run by the ILO.
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation
Researching international labour law by Erica Friesen & Brianna Storms (GlobaLex guide) Jan/Feb 2023.
Trades Union Congress: know your rights. The TUC publishes a series of free leaflets explaining people's rights at work and dealing with other common workplace problems.
Search Tips
Case Law
Legal Databases
The two major legal databases contain employment case law decisions alongside legislation and commentary:
- Westlaw Edge UK
Westlaw has an Employment and Work topic area where you can quickly browse employment law materials, including the IDS Employment Law Handbooks and Law Brief which keep you up to date with the latest employment legislation and cases plus discussions on practical implications for employers and employees.
- Lexis+ UK
Includes a whole employment law section, including commentary (e.g. Butterworths Employment Law Handbook, Harvey on Industrial Relations & Employment Law). Go to the Practice Areas tab and choose Employment.
Freely available case law
There are a number of freely available online case law resources that can be useful for checking in on the facts of the latest employment cases.
When cases reach the higher courts the focus is on determining questions of law. If you are interested in the facts and scenarios that arise from employment law disputes, the judgments of the Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeals Tribunal can be a rich research resource.
- Employment Appeal Tribunal decisions
Find decisions on appeals against employment tribunals heard by the Employment Appeal Tribunal. You can search or browse for cases by date or category of employment dispute.
- Employment Tribunal decisions
Decisions on Employment Tribunal cases in England, Wales and Scotland from February 2017 onwards. You can search or browse for decisions by date and/or topic.
- Employment Law Cases Update
UK's leading index of free to view employment law cases. Covers key Employment Appeal Tribunal, High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court decisions, as well as key European cases. Includes succinct summaries of each case and full search functions.
- BAILII United Kingdom
BAILII provides access to Tribunal decisions including the Employment and Employment Appeal Tribunals. You can browse or search by date, topic, party names and citation
- CAC: Central Arbitration Committee
The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) is a tribunal with judicial responsibilities. It;s role is to encourage fair and efficient arrangements in the workplace by resolving collective disputes in England, Scotland and Wales, either by voluntary agreement or, if necessary, through a legal decision. Outcomes and decisions are freely available.
- Certification Officer
The Certification Officer (CO) is responsible for ensuring that trade unions and employers’ associations carry out their statutory duties. Certification Officer (CO) decisions made in response to complaints and applications are freely available.
Blogs and Current Awareness
It can be useful to search for recent discussion of employment law decisions in blogs, current awareness updates and other commentary sources from the legal profession that have been made available online. For example, many law firms engaged in employment litigation will publish updates on current employment law issues or report and reflect on recent case law.
You can use an advanced google search to target your online searching at this material.
For example, you can target law firm sites by searching for site:co.uk or site:com. If you searched site:org.uk you would find material from employment law related organisations such as ACAS, the Law Society, Citizen's Advice etc.
Have a look at these sample searches for an idea of how to produce targeted searches:
employment AND discrimination site:org.uk
employment law blog site:co.uk and/or employment law blog site:com
employment cases site:co.uk and/or employment cases site:com
employment law latest site:co.uk and/or employment law latest site:com
You could also search for a case name in the same way to find discussion on blogs or organisational websites, e.g.