The focal point of my research is an analysis of how trade union rights have been weakened in recent decades through a combination of legislative controls and HRM management techniques. This has been significantly underpinned by judicial interventions since the 1960s, which have used characterisations of trade unions and industrial action that were developed during the nineteenth century. Essentially common law concepts and principles have been used to depict industrial action in the worst possible light and to castigate the traditional system of giving trade union rights through statutory immunities as privileges to break the law. I have called this process the legal mystification of industrial relations.