Administrative Law Matters

Commentary on developments in administrative law, particularly judicial review of administrative action by common law courts.

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Parole: Law, Policy and Practice

I spoke today at a conference on Parole: Law, Policy and Practice, organised by the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice, at which I commented on the recent decision of the Divisional Court in R (DSD and NBV) v  The Parole Board [2018] EWHC 694 (Admin). This was a judicial review of the Board’s decision to direct […] Read more

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A Week of Arguments about Deference

Last week’s output from the Supreme Court of Canada featured four administrative law cases: one about the analytical tools used by the Correctional Service of Canada for dealing with aboriginal offenders (Ewert v. Canada, 2018 SCC 30); one about the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s refusal to entertain discrimination claims brought by members of Indigenous communities  […] Read more

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Right and Wrong on the Scope of Judicial Review: Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v. Wall, 2018 SCC 26

Sometimes courts reach the right results for the wrong reasons. The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v. Wall, 2018 SCC 26, an important case about the scope of judicial review of administrative action, is a good example. The outcome is surely the right one, but the way […] Read more

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“Unfairness” in Administrative Law: R (Gallaher Group Ltd) v Competition and Markets Authority [2018] UKSC 25

There is a very useful discussion of the relationship between the “language” of administrative law and the grounds of review of judicial review of administrative action in the recent decision of the UK Supreme Court in R (Gallaher Group Ltd) v Competition and Markets Authority [2018] UKSC 25. At issue here was differential treatment of […] Read more

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Thinking about the Upcoming Trilogy: West Fraser Mills Ltd. v. British Columbia (Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal), 2018 SCC 22

David Mullan was (unsurprisingly) quite right: the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in West Fraser Mills Ltd. v. British Columbia (Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal), 2018 SCC 22 seems to shed some light on how the Court is likely to approach the trilogy of cases in which it will revisit the standard of review analysis. There […] Read more

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Revisiting Dunsmuir: Food for Thought

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada did something very unusual, granting leave to appeal in three judicial review cases and explaining: The Court is of the view that these appeals provide an opportunity to consider the nature and scope of judicial review of administrative action, as addressed in Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, [2008] 1 S.C.R. […] Read more