As a matter of theory there is much to be said for the proposition that there is no hard-and-fast distinction between administrative law and constitutional law in Commonwealth countries. In the United Kingdom, without an entrenched, codified constitution, the distinction is entirely porous, with constitutional issues regularly seeping into judicial review cases (and, sometimes, when […] Read more

I have posted “Executive Power in the United Kingdom” to SSRN. Written for an edited collection on executive power in Europe, here is the abstract: This paper, written for a pan-European collection edited by Marcel Morabito (Sciences Po) is about the evolution of executive power in the United Kingdom. My goal is to describe the […] Read more

In the first year after Vavilov was released, I read pretty well every decision in which the Supreme Court of Canada’s reformulation of administrative law was cited. The result was “One Year of Vavilov” and a soon-to-appear chapter in Colleen Flood and Paul Daly eds., Administrative Law in Context, 4th ed.  Since then, I have been less assiduous in […] Read more

One of the reasons blogging has been so light in recent months is that I have been turning to my hand to other forms of legal writing. You can see some of the fruits of my labours in the Abrametz appeal here and the factum of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association in the Sullivan appeal will soon be available here. The nature […] Read more

After an enjoyable summer break, it is time to get through the blogging backlog (the “bloglog”?) and a good place to start is the interesting decision of the UK Supreme Court in R (Pathan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, [2020] UKSC 41, which prompts reflection on the content of procedural fairness, the divide […] Read more

Cross-posted from the Australian Public Law Blog Chantal Bostock is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Law & Justice, and a former member of the AAT. As noted by colleagues, this blog series celebrates 50 years since the publication of the Kerr Report, which brought about great changes in Australian administrative law. In this blog post, I am going to […] Read more

This morning, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its eagerly awaited (at least by s. 96 anoraks) decision in the Court of Quebec reference: Reference re Code of Civil Procedure (Que.), art. 35, 2021 SCC 27 (see here for my post on the Court of Appeal decision). This is a significant contribution to the jurisprudence, though just how […] Read more

This is the latest cross-post from the Australian Public Law Blog series on the 50th anniversary of the Kerr Report. For previous entries, see here, here and here. The 50th anniversary of the reforms recommended by the Kerr Committee provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the bigger picture of judicial review and administrative law. The understated but important […] Read more

Here is my blog post on the doctrinal law relating to tribunal competence and expertise for the Tribunal Watch Ontario/Windsor Law webinar on independence and impartiality. Here is what Tribunal Watch Ontario’s Statement of Principles says Adjudicators must be optimally competent and the tribunal equally competent in the exercise of its mandate. Adjudicators must have […] Read more

This afternoon I completed the Index for Understanding Administrative Law in the Common Law World, forthcoming later this year with Oxford University Press. I sent the proofs to the publishers last week, so the book should meet the target release date of August 2021. You can pre-order the hardcover version here. Here is the brief summary of […] Read more