The Pernicious Effect of Employment Relationships on the Law of Contracts

Using contract law to solve problems in a status relationship like employment has been as harmful to contract law as it has been to employment law. To make this point, Part II of this article begins with a brief discussion of both contract and employment law, specifically focusing on their origins, their relationship to each other, and the role of status in each. Part III examines three areas of contract law-consideration, capacity, and promissory estoppel-focusing on the influence that employment issues have had on contract law. Part IV concludes with a brief investigation of how courts continue to grab the tools of contract in an unsuccessful attempt to deal with the problems in a status relationship.