LAWS1160 Chap.1 Administrative Law Foundations and Justice
Administrative Law Foundations and Justice
Administrative law is the law of controlled public power. Its first discipline is classification: identify the statute that confers authority, the official or body acting under it, the decision or conduct that affects the applicant, and the institution asked to review that action. Those coordinates prevent a problem answer from drifting into general complaints about fairness.
They also show why the same facts may produce a merits question, a legality question, or both. Merits review and judicial review serve different functions. A merits body acts only when legislation gives it jurisdiction, but within that authority it may reconsider facts, law, policy and discretion to reach the correct or preferable result.
A court exercising judicial review asks whether the administrator stayed within legal limits. It ordinarily supervises the exercise of power rather than substituting its preferred outcome. Naming the route at the beginning therefore controls the issues, materials and remedies that follow. The source of each rule matters just as much as the review route. An Act creates authority and may impose conditions.
Delegated legislation can add binding detail when made within the statutory grant. Policy promotes consistency but cannot rewrite the Act or eliminate the responsibility to decide an individual case. An administrative decision then applies the scheme to particular facts. Keeping these instruments separate makes later arguments about purpose, considerations and fettering much clearer.
Values such as legality, fairness, rationality, participation and accountability explain the shape of the subject, but they do not operate as free-standing grounds. Use a value to illuminate statutory construction or the content of a recognised doctrine. Then complete the legal work by identifying jurisdiction, a ground, materiality where relevant, and practical relief.
A conclusion that merely calls an outcome unfair leaves those steps unanswered. A reliable opening method is to draw a short accountability map. Put Parliament and the empowering Act first, the administrator and challenged action next, and the available merits and judicial routes after that. Beside every proposition, write its legal source. Beside every alleged error, state the institutional consequence.
This map turns a large body of cases into a sequence of questions and keeps dissatisfaction with the merits from being mistaken for legal invalidity.\n\nA second useful discipline is to distinguish legal character from practical influence. Policy can strongly affect outcomes without becoming delegated legislation, and a preliminary step can shape a decision without itself being the reviewable act.
Ask what legal force the statute gives each instrument and event. That question keeps the analysis tied to authority rather than appearances. When revising, test every proposition against a short fictional scheme. Change one feature at a time: make the policy mandatory, give the tribunal a review provision, or remove the court's statutory route. Observe which conclusion changes and which remains stable.
This variation practice reveals whether the rule has been understood or merely memorised. It also prepares you for an exam built around unfamiliar legislation, where the marks come from reading the new scheme and transferring principles accurately.\n\nBefore closing any answer, name the institutional consequence of the classification.
State whether a tribunal may substitute, whether a court may only supervise, and whether the administrator must decide again. This final check exposes category errors that doctrinal definitions alone can hide and keeps the response directed to the applicant's real objective.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Public power and statutory authority
- 02
Merits review and judicial review
- 03
Administrative justice values
- 04
Delegated legislation and policy
- 05
Institutional consequences
Worked example · free
Classify the instrument
- +1Classify the Act, policy and decision.
- +1Test policy against the statutory discretion.
Key terms
- Administrative justice
- The values and institutions supporting lawful, fair and accountable administration.
- Delegated legislation
- Legally binding rules made under authority conferred by an Act.
Administrative Law Foundations and Justice FAQ
Why distinguish merits and legality?
Merits review seeks the correct or preferable outcome under statutory authority, while judicial review asks whether public power was exercised lawfully. The distinction determines what the reviewer may reconsider, which materials can be used, who controls the final judgment, and whether the result is substitution or lawful reconsideration.
Can policy bind an administrator?
Policy may guide consistent decision-making but remains subordinate to the statute. A decision-maker must retain responsibility for the individual case, understand the statutory criteria, and remain open to lawful departure where the scheme permits it. Treating policy as enacted law can distort both the power and the review ground.
Do values create grounds of review?
Values help explain and interpret doctrine, but a problem answer still needs jurisdiction, a recognised legal error and available relief. Fairness or accountability alone does not authorise a court to remake a decision. Use the value to clarify construction, then return to the elements and institutional consequence of the doctrine.
Exam move
Draw the accountability map from Parliament to administrator to merits and judicial review. For every practice fact, classify the instrument and state which institution may respond. This foundation prevents later confusion between policy, law, merits disagreement and legal error.
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