大象测试是指想法或者事物“很难形容,但是当它出现的时候我能立刻认出来”的情况[1]。
这个词经常被用来在法律案件中,某个事件的翻译或者解释比较敏感或者开放的[2][3],如加多置业有限公司诉莫里斯的情况下,当大法官斯图尔特-史密斯提到了“众所周知大象测试。这很难形容,但当你看到它的时候你就知道它。”[4]
存档副本. [2014-08-01]. (原始内容存档于2013-06-03).Valuing and Judging Partners — Beyond the Elephant Test!, Edge International Review, Summer 2006
B.Wedderburn, The Worker and the Law (3rd ed, Harmondsworth, Penguin,1986), 116.
Catherine Barnard, The Personal Scope of the Employment Relationship (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆), in T.Araki and S.Ouchi (eds), The Mechanism for establishing and Changing Terms and Conditions of Employment/The Scope of Labor Law and the Notion of Employees, The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training Report, 2004, vol.1, 131-136.