Are all informal normative facts custom? The ideological dimensions of company customs

The main goal of this chapter is to highlight the indeterminacy of the concept of “company customs”. As it is used by jurists, this concept makes it possible to view an informal long-lasting practice which is advantageous for the employees and adopted by an employer within a company context as a pattern of legally binding behaviour. The present chapter will show that any pro-employee informal practice could derive from different managerial strategies (that could be binding, but not necessarily). Also, jurists interpret said informal practices in the light of different kinds of non-formalised normative facts (that could be custom, but not necessarily are such). Therefore, the reconstruction of these normative facts can be influenced by an ideological notion of what the normative system of a company is in the mind of jurists. This chapter will thus investigate the theoretical and ideological background of company custom and the possible contrast between the adoption of this legal concept and the rule of law.