c o n t i n u i t y a n d c o n t r ac t 237 a textbook in private law that formed the pattern of the Swedish legal education and that was first published in 1910. Like the proposals of 1900 and 1901 and most of the other Swedish legal scientists of his day who expressed an opinion about matters of labour law, Björling based his reasoning mainly on the individual labour contract and neglected the tendency of the day towards collective solutions. His analysis without a doubt was also based on the idea of the working party being subordinate. From his traditional starting points, Björling emphasised the distinction between the piece work contract (Sw. arbetsbeting, locatio conductio operis) and the hiring of service (Sw. tjänstelega, locatio conductio operarum).According to Björling, a number of different kinds of agreements belonged to the latter type of contract, from “engaging” (Sw. antaga) an errand boy or unskilled worker with a set weekly or hourly wage to hiring (Swanställa) a manager or hiring the services (Sw. anlita) of a lawyer or a doctor. The working party, Björling wrote, did not assume responsibility for a specific result but for the work itself. If the worker became sick, the employer did not need to pay wages unless this was expressly stated in the contract. Industrial actions were legally permitted on condition that the employing party had not bound him- or herself to continuing the relationship longer than had occurred.481 Even if the great number involved made it difficult to establish any general rules for the service contracts, Björling stated certain important steps to find the sources of the law. Legislation did not regulate the service contract outside of the modern protective legislation, but Björling pointed to ways of establishing general rules. Beside the legislative acts, and in fact sometimes in opposition to them, the customary law applied. That was made up of rules, nowhere written and never decreed, but “based on the people’s 481 Björling 1910, pp. 6-8, 138-143, 148; Björling 1918, pp. 8-9, 157-168; Björling 1923, pp. 7-9, 149-159; Björling & Almén 1930, pp. 7-8, 148-155.
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