Arab Contract of Employment

The contract of employment is the legal instrument which regulates the conditions of employment of the vast majority of the working 1 people of the world. More than any other civil contract based on mutual rights and obligations, this contract is characterised by the importance of its human elements. Sir William Blackstone once under- lined the human and legal significance ofthe relationship, by classifying it immediately after the two great human relationships of husband and 2 wife and of parent and child. The contract is thus nationally and internationally important. In 1927 the International Labour Conference adopted a resolution 'requesting the governing body of the Office to consider the possibility of placing the question of the general principles of contracts of employment on the agenda of a future session of the Conference. '3 This question was regrettably not followed up. The reason though not the justification, lies in the difficult task of limiting the bounds of the contract and of reconciling the different legal systems in the various countries. The effort spent by the LL. O. during the last few years towards the adoption of an international recommendation on the termination of the contract, which is yet to bear fruit, illustrates the difficulties involved. In the Arab countries the importance of the contract of employment was more felt since the introduction of industry thirty years ago.