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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Vulnerable Subject At Work: A New Perspective On The Employment At-Will Debate, Jonathan Fineman
The Vulnerable Subject At Work: A New Perspective On The Employment At-Will Debate, Jonathan Fineman
Journal Publications
This article applies recent "vulnerability" scholarship to employment law issues. A vulnerability approach argues that the autonomous liberal legal subject at the heart of much of political and legal thought fails to capture the material, social, and developmental realities of the human condition and thus should be replaced with a "vulnerable subject." Importantly, and in contrast to the autonomous, independent, and self sufficient abstraction of the liberal legal subject, the vulnerable legal subject is theorized as embodied and as embedded in social contexts. The idea of the vulnerable subject has been described as providing a needed intervention into U.S. policy …
The Inevitable Demise Of The Implied Employment Contract, Jonathan Fineman
The Inevitable Demise Of The Implied Employment Contract, Jonathan Fineman
Journal Publications
In this article, Professor Fineman argues that courts' decision in the early 1980s to apply implied contract doctrine to employment relationships did not have the intended results. Employers immediately began restructuring their employment documents, and eventually found a way to essentially avoid liability through careful drafting of personnel documents. Professor Fineman further argues that the failure of contract law was inevitable based on the limitations of contract theory. Finally, Professor Fineman suggests a method to more successfully enforce workplace norms by looking to broader-based norms prevalent in the industry or applicable to the type of job position at issue,