"As employment law changes and develops, in sometimes surprising ways, this paper considers the possibility that employment law may not be keeping pace with the diversity of working patterns and practices which have rapidly evolved in the past few decades. It therefore poses the question whether labour law needs to change direction to accommodate the work and workers of the twenty-first century. It firstly makes and details the point, against a statistical base, that significant change in the labour market is nothing new, but then turns to the identification of quite radical recent and continuing changes, and goes on to ask whether they demand a changing law. It presents four cases to illustrate where the law appears to fall short, expressing unease that a discriminatory wrong can be done without the law being able to address it, and highlights different ways in which the law of contract may not provide an appropriate model to deal with today's problems. The possibility is canvassed that if the expression ‘arrangement' were used in place of the contractual model, the concentration might then be on industrial realities rather than legal niceties. In conclusion, it is emphasised that the answers are ones of policy which are critically dependent upon the guiding political philosophy of the time. (The paper was delivered as a lecture as a general election approached.)"

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