Lambelho, Ana2020-02-032020-02-032013-06http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/4618The aim of this research is, based on the analysis of several articles of Portuguese Labour Code regarding independent work, in order to prevent fraudulent situations, to reflect about an eventual need of rethinking the boundaries of labour law in a double sense: i) whether the legal subordination must continue to be the normative axis of Labour Law, despite the changing forms of productive organization; ii) whether the scope of Labour Law should be extended to situations where there is no legal subordination but where there are other forms of dependence. The urgency of the first issue comes from the fact that the legal subordination is a notion that comes already from the times of capitalist production. Outsourcing and the business networking organization enhanced by new technologies, implying a bigger segmentation of the attributes and responsibilities of the employer, changed the paradigm on which rested the legal subordination, either from the side of who holds the power of direction, as from the side of who must obey. The legal subordination presupposes a "dominant social type" which seems to be called into question, or at least changed, by new forms of business organization. Although changes in the figures of the employer and the worker are impeding implementation and operationalization of that concept, we understand that it is endowed with sufficient elasticity to remain the distinctive element of the employment relationship. Regarding the second question, we think the Labour Law does not provide adequate legal protection to independent work neither to economically dependent autonomous work, although we defend a specific regulation of these last two types of work.engconference object