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From Statute To Contract: The Law Of The Employment Relationship Reconsidered, Eileen Silverstein

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

Most observers would say that the employment relationship is regulated largely by statutes. This Article argues that the statutory regulation of the employment relationship, and its correction of market failures, is disappearing under the cloak of judicial decisions upholding contracts which, in one form or another, find individuals to have waived their and the public's statutory rights. In a variation on the nineteenth century's transformation of the employment relationship from status to contract, we have the contemporary move from statute to contract. Part I of this Article examines how contractual waivers operate within the framework of the statutory regulation of …