A comparative analysis of the legal position of professional sportsmen under Finnish, English and European Community law : the borderlines of employment

Abstract

It is well established in advanced industrial economies that labour is not a commodity, which can be subject to the ordinary rules of the market. Therefore, the law distinguishes between different categories of suppliers of work in order to protect those who are not able to ensure adequate protection simply by negotiations at arm's length with the employer. The most common distinction made is between the employees working under a contract of employment and the self-employed performing work under another type of contract. It is through this dual categorisation that legislation attempts to protect the party considered weaker in the market by restricting the limits on the freedom of contract. These categories are also used when there is a need to classify a new group or a new profession, which enters the field of commercial use of labour. To put it in more theoretical language, this classification defines the personal scope of the 'juridification' of the working life, i.e. the extent to which labour/employment legislation limits the freedom of contract and enters those spheres previously subject to the autonomy of groups and individuals. Although there are developments where a new category has been introduced, there is no doubt that distinguishing those workers in need of protection from those who are able to protect themselves continues to be in at very core of labour law.