The role of lay/non-legal members in employment rights cases
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Greenwich
Department Name: Business School
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Susan Corby (Principal Investigator) | |
| Paul Latreille (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Corby S
(2012)
Employment Tribunals and the Civil Courts: Isomorphism Exemplified
in Industrial Law Journal
Corby S
(2012)
Tripartite adjudication-an endangered species Tripartite adjudication
in Industrial Relations Journal
Paul Latreille (Author)
(2011)
Adjudicating employment rights disputes : the lay members' role
Pete Burgess (Author)
(2012)
Varieties of tribunals : employment disputes resolution, legal origins and national business systems
Pete Burgess (Co-Author)
(2014)
Lay Judges and Labor Courts: A Question of Legitimacy
in Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal
| Description | The surveys of judges and lay members broadly endorsed the role of lay members and considered that they added value. Specifically the surveys found: • Lay members' main contribution derived from their provision of workplace experience, which the professional judges did not have and their injection of a practitioner perspective which balanced judges' legal perspective. • High percentages of both Employment Tribunal lay members and judges (100 and 80 per cent respectively) assessed unfair dismissal as a jurisdiction where lay members added value to decision making, despite government plans to enable judges to sit alone in unfair dismissal cases. • Few judges or lay members assessed lay members' contribution to the hearing in terms of the lowest score on a 1 to 4 scale, with average respondent scores suggesting a greater contribution at the ET than at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). • Respondents broadly agreed that a three person tribunal is likely to have greater legitimacy for the parties than a judge alone. • The majority of judges, both at the ET and the EAT preferred to sit alone at least some of the time, with small percentages always wishing to do so. • Comparing English and Scottish respondents, two clear patterns emerge. First differences between ET judges and ET lay members overall were much greater than geographical differences, although on the whole Scottish respondents were less fulsome in their views than their English counterparts. Most interviewees said that they valued the presence of lay members on employment tribunals (ETs) because they were able to reassure parties that two out of the three people deciding their case had workplace experience and that it would not just be a lawyer who would be the decision maker. As to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, interviewees had mixed views. Some interviewees could see no point in having lay members on a tribunal that determined points of law, but others held a contra- view, while some interviewees were equivocal. The selection of lay judges to the labour courts of Great Britain (GB) is unique. First, since 1999 there has been self nomination to the employee or employer panel, replacing nomination by trade union and employer organisations, which occurs elsewhere in European labour courts. Second in GB, self nominees are then assessed by formal selection processes. Elsewhere the social partners formally or informally check nominees' credentials. Third, in GB, the government has gradually given sole adjudication to professional judges. Elsewhere, governments have not questioned the role of lay members. |
| Exploitation Route | Public policy debate by government, Advisory Conciliation & Arbitration Service, Trades Union Congress, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Lawyers represenenting claimants and respondents |
| Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Lay Members and EAT Outcomes: Some Empirical Food for Thought? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Staff seminar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Lay Members and EAT Outcomes: Some Empirical Food for Thought? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Staff seminar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Varieties of Trribunals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Paper linking labour courts to typologies of national systems, making comparisons and examining anomalies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |