What follows is a longer version of a short note written for Per Incuriam, the termly publication of the Cambridge University Law Society. As is well known, perhaps even notorious, there is no general common law duty to give reasons for administrative decisions. Even those judges who seem in favour of recognising a general duty […] Read more

As is well known, the scope of the duty of fairness owed by administrative decision-makers to individuals has expanded greatly in recent decades, so much so that one might reasonably ask whether the duty of fairness knows any bounds. In its very interesting decision in P. & S. Holdings Ltd. v. Canada, 2017 FCA 41, […] Read more

Cross-posted from the Administrative Law Blog. There is a nice passage early on in Amnon Rubinstein’s Jurisdiction and Illegality (Oxford, Clarendon, 1965). Responding to a claim of Hans Kelsen that voidness is a monolithic concept and arguing instead for a distinction between unlawful decisions that are void and those that are merely voidable, Rubinstein writes […] Read more

Stratas JA has published a very useful general guide to judicial review of administrative action in Canada. “The Canadian Law of Judicial Review: Some Doctrine and Cases” can be downloaded from SSRN: It is hard to find a useful, up-to-date summary of the Canadian law of judicial review. This summary attempts in a scholarly way […] Read more

There is a new administrative law blog, the Admin Law Blog, which is a most welcome new addition to the blawgosphere. The editors’ introductory post describes the blog as follows: This is a forum for the discussion of ideas and developments of interest to scholars of administrative law across the common law world. It aims […] Read more

The House of Lords Constitution Committee’s Legislative Process Inquiry recently held a fascinating evidence session on Brexit, with Professors John Bell, Paul Craig and Alison Young. Anyone interested in the mechanics of Britain’s exit from the EU would be well advised to watch. Most of the discussion focused on the proposed “Great Repeal Bill”, which […] Read more

Last night I gave a work-in-progress talk at the Centre for Public Law, on the topic of the boundaries of judicial review of administrative action. You can listen to my presentation above, or click on this link. Here is the abstract: The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the boundaries of judicial review […] Read more

Today at the Centre for Public Law, we kicked off a new series of seminars, New Faces in Public Law, designed to bring to the Faculty emerging scholars who have produced interesting work on important issues of public law. to Dr Sarah Nason (Bangor University) introduced her new book, Reconstructing Judicial Review (Hart, 2016). Here […] Read more

There is a very interesting discussion in a recent UK Supreme Court case — Re Brewster’s Application [2017] UKSC 8 — of how much deference courts should afford to post hoc rationalisations of administrative decisions. Brewster’s fiancé died suddenly. He had been entitled to a government pension. His cohabiting survivor (Brewster) was entitled to receive […] Read more

At issue in R v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, ex parte World Development Movement Ltd [1995] 1 WLR 386 was a grant of development aid to Malaysia to build the Pergau Dam. The grant was made under the Overseas Development and Co-operation Act 1980, s. 1(1) of which gives the Minister […] Read more