Appeals on a point of law from the Industrial Tribunal’s decisions : is there an established benchmark?

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on a central issue in relation to the appeal procedure from the decisions of the Industrial Tribunal: the notion of a ‘point of law’. The Employment and Industrial Relations Act which, inter alia, grants the Industrial Tribunal exclusive jurisdiction over specific cases relative to an employment relationship, affords a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal (Inferior Jurisdiction) solely on a point of law. This dissertation investigates the elements which give rise to a point of law in order to ascertain the benchmark which has to be reached for a decision of the Industrial Tribunal to be impugned. The initial chapter introduces the research by outlining the background behind the issue under scrutiny and explaining the rationale which this dissertation is based upon. This is followed by an examination of the existing literature in the field as well as an analysis of what academic authors have stated in this regard. The third chapter highlights the principles arising from salient decisions of the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal and judgments delivered by the Court of Appeal (England and Wales) since, similar to the local scenario, decisions of UK Employment Tribunals can be appealed on a question of law. This serves at giving this dissertation a comparative law standpoint. The penultimate chapter undertakes a jurisprudential review in the form of an evaluation of Maltese Court of Appeal judgments when taking cognisance of appeals from decisions of the Industrial Tribunal, to try to decipher the meaning which has been attributed to the notion of a point of law in this context. This culminates into a concluding chapter which, whilst providing the research findings and the answers to the research questions, puts forward recommendations to certain issues which have been highlighted throughout the research.