ABSTRAKThe personal scope of employment law is the subject of much ongoing debate. Arguing that an exclusively contractual analysis of this domain is unsatisfactory, the author constructs a European-based empirical typology distinguishing the personal work relations of standard "employees", public officials, "liberal professions", individual entrepreneurial workers, marginal workers, and labour market entrants. These categories and their inter-relationships are then analysed dynamically in terms of "personal work nexuses" - a concept encompassing complex legal ramifications beyond the contractual framework. The conclusions highlight the value of this analytical approach to recent efforts by the ILO and the European Commission to "modernize" labour law.