This thesis examines the impact of individual employment protection legislation on the employment relationship in the hotel and catering industry (HeI), exactly the type of industry whose workers the employment law was intended to protect. It begins \\-ith a review of the potential effects of employment legislation on the employment relationship. It then analyses and evaluates the practical effects of individual employment legislation in hotels and catering from relevant case law. and the workings of the Industrial Tribunal system, identifying that unfair dismissal is the most important aspect. In order to ask to what extent dismissal law constrains the managerial prerogative, in the light of recent socio-economic and legal changes, employer experience of, and attitudes to existing employment rights and the Industrial Tribunal system are assessed. This is achieved by means of a postal questionnaire to employers in the industry. This is then augmented by follow-up semi-structured interviews with the employers. The legislation was found to have more effect on employer behaviour than is apparent prima facie. The ways in which many employers seek to circumvent the provisions of the law provides evidence of this. The high rate of dismissal in the industry shows, however, that employers are not constrained from using dismissal. Rather, the manner of making dismissals is more formalised due to the threat of tribunal actions. The actual incidence of dismissal could well be far higher since it appeared that some employers did not regard the termination of employment of an employee without the service qualitication as a dismissal. Tribunal actions themselves are quite uncommon, given the high incidence of dismissal. The low success rate for employers at tribunals, and the acknowledgement by employers that procedural requirements were often not met during disciplinary matters, suggests that arbitrary management practice is still widespread.

La justice est rendue « au nom du peuple français », c’est ce qu’on peut lire en première page des décisions rendues par les juridictions françaises. Tout citoyen peut être conduit à l’œuvre de justice. Néanmoins, juger requiert des capacités et aptitudes propres aux magistrats professionnels en raison de leur formation. Pour autant, en France, le système juridique fait participer à la justice des citoyens peu accoutumés à ce qui peut sembler à un véritable métier. Ces citoyens non professionnels endossent la fonction de juge et le pouvoir de juger à leur prestation de serment à l’instar des juges de carrière. Ces juges, jurés ou juges occasionnels offrent-ils une garantie de bien juger ? Pour les premiers, les jurés, recrutés ponctuellement par tirage au sort le temps d’une session d’assises selon une obligation civique, il s’agit de « citoyens juges » qui découvrent la justice criminelle le jour de leur recrutement. Si le bon sens est utile au jugement criminel, il est loin d’être suffisant. Pour les seconds, les juges occasionnels recrutés partiellement le temps d’un mandat, il s’agit de « juges citoyens », considérés comme plus proches du « terrain », plus habitués aux usages d’une profession. Membres des tribunaux de commerce, juges de proximité ou conseillers prud’hommes statuent ainsi sans l’assistance d’un juge professionnel. Leur mode de recrutement garantit-il leur compétence ? La reconnaissance de l’expérience juridique traduit-elle l’aptitude à juger ? A l’inverse que vaut l’expérience, la pratique dans un secteur d’activité au regard d’un droit de plus en plus légiféré, réglementé, qui exige, au quotidien, de solides connaissances juridiques ? / On the front page of the decisions made by the French courts can be read « Justice is given in the name of the French people ». Every citizen may be brought to work for the justice. Nevertheless, judging requires professional skills and abilities that magistrates have acquired through their training. In France, the legal system however, uses citizens that are little accustomed to what may be considered as a real profession. These non-professional citizens take on the role of the judge and the right to judge by giving sermon in the same manner as a career judge. Do these judges, jurors or occasional judges offer the same guarantee of good judgement? First, the jurors, recruited punctually by random selection for a session of assizes according to a civic obligation, are “citizen judges” who only discover criminal justice on the day of their recruitment. If common sense is useful to criminal judgment, it is far from being sufficient. Second, occasional judges recruited partly during a mandate, are “citizen judges”, considered to be closer to be closer to their specific “field” and more accustomed to the uses of a particular profession. Members of commercial tribunals, local judges of industrial tribunal advisors decide without the assistance of a professional judge. Do their recruitment methods guarantee their competence? Does the recognition of legal experience reflect the ability to judge? Conversely, what does this experience worth, when practicing in a sector of activity with regard to an increasingly legislated, regulated law, which requires a strong legal knowledge on a daily basi?