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Forty years of IRLR

02 November 2012 / Michael Rubenstein
Issue: 7536 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Michael Rubenstein reflects on the employment law changes he has witnessed since 1972

Industrial Relations Law Reports (IRLR) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. I have had the honour of editing it from the start. The very phrase “industrial relations” is now anachronistic, but although the context is now very different, most of our core employment legislation has its origins in the 1970s, as does the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

EAT

EAT decisions have formed the heart of IRLR since the court began sitting in 1976. In the early days, it was inevitable that EAT judges would have little background in employment law, let alone the emerging area of discrimination law. In the case of Sir Gordon Slynn and Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson, this was of little consequence - both were brilliant lawyers. The policy for many years of rotating the EAT presidency between judges from the Family, Chancery and Queen’s Bench Division was not appropriate, however.

In contrast, all the EAT presidents from Mr Justice Morison onwards in 1997 appear

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
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The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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