JURD7160 Chap.1 Foundations and Administrative Justice
Foundations and Administrative Justice
This chapter locates administrative decisions within legislation, delegated legislation, policy and institutional review. It also uses administrative justice values to evaluate accuracy, participation, transparency, consistency and responsiveness without confusing desirable administration with a legal ground.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Primary legislation, delegated legislation, policy and administrative decisions
- 02
Administrative justice values and accountable government
- 03
Credibility assessment and the limits of judicial supervision
- 04
Merits review and judicial review as distinct accountability pathways
Classify a policy-driven licence refusal
- 1Separate the Act, the internal policy and the operative decision.
- 1Ask whether the authorised official genuinely exercised the statutory discretion.
- 2Distinguish a merits challenge from a legality challenge.
Key terms
- Administrative justice
- Administrative justice is the set of values and institutions concerned with fair, accurate, accessible and accountable public decision-making.
- Delegated legislation
- Delegated legislation is a rule made under authority conferred by primary legislation.
Foundations and Administrative Justice FAQ
How can I test whether a policy has displaced statutory judgment?
Look for absolute language, automatic outcomes and reasons that fail to engage with individual submissions. Compare the policy with the Act and ask whether the authorised officer remained willing to depart when statutory purposes or unusual facts justified a different choice.
How do legislation, delegated legislation and policy differ?
Primary legislation supplies authority enacted by Parliament. Delegated legislation contains rules made under a power Parliament conferred and must remain within that authority. Policy ordinarily guides officials toward consistent administration but does not enlarge the power. A problem answer should identify each instrument separately before asking which one controls the decision.
Why are administrative justice values useful if they are not grounds?
Values such as transparency, participation, accuracy and consistency explain what good administration seeks to achieve and why review institutions are designed differently. They help evaluate processes and identify where a recognised doctrine may be relevant, but the legal argument still needs a statutory source, jurisdiction and established ground.
How should credibility concerns appear in a review answer?
Describe the evidence, the inference made and any assumption that may have distorted the assessment. Then identify a legal pathway that permits scrutiny, such as procedural fairness or misuse of a statutory criterion. Avoid asking the court to repeat factual evaluation simply because another account seems more persuasive.
What is the first question in an administrative law problem?
Ask where the claimed authority comes from and who exercised it. That opening identifies the controlling statute, any delegated instrument, the role of policy and the operative decision. Once the legal relationship is clear, later questions about review, grounds and remedies can be framed without confusing institutional functions.
Why distinguish policy from legislation?
Legislation can confer binding authority within its valid scope. Policy ordinarily guides administration but cannot enlarge statutory power or automatically replace attention to individual circumstances. The classification therefore shapes both the decision-maker's task and the available review argument.
Exam move
Start revision by drawing an accountability map that links the legislature, the executive decision-maker, any merits-review body and the supervising court. Beside each institution, write its distinctive question. The legislature confers and limits authority. The administrator applies that authority to facts. A merits reviewer asks what the correct or preferable decision should be within its jurisdiction.
A court asks whether the exercise was lawful. Rebuild this map from memory until you can place an unfamiliar problem without reaching immediately for a ground of review. Practise classification with short packets of material. Label an Act as primary legislation, a regulation as delegated legislation, an operational manual as policy and the final notice as the administrative decision.
Then ask what legal force each item has and which one can confer power. Repeat the exercise with ambiguous documents, such as a ministerial direction or an agency guideline, and identify what further statutory information would resolve the classification. This prevents policy from being treated as legislation and keeps a communication distinct from the operative decision.
Use administrative justice values as an evaluative layer after legal classification. Take one process and assess its accuracy, participation, transparency, consistency, responsiveness and accessibility. Explain where the values reinforce one another and where they conflict. A standard checklist may improve consistency but reduce responsiveness. A rapid process may increase access while narrowing the chance to respond.
The aim is not to transform every value into a legal ground, but to understand why institutions and procedures are designed as they are. For credibility problems, separate factual evaluation from legal supervision. List the evidence available to the official, the inference drawn and any stereotype or assumption that may have entered the reasoning. Next identify the doctrine that would permit a court to examine the problem.
Do not write that the court should simply prefer a different account. Instead, connect the concern to statutory limits, procedural fairness, relevant considerations or another recognised legal route supported by the facts. End each study session with a fresh fictional decision. Give an official a power, a policy and an applicant submission.
Write three openings: one for merits review, one for judicial review and one using administrative justice language. Compare the questions each opening asks. Your final answer should name the legal materials and institutional relationship before reaching a conclusion. The habit to preserve is simple: classify the system first, diagnose the error second, and state what the relevant reviewer can lawfully do last.
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