PUBLIC LAW 2 Flashcards
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte fire brigades Union [1995]
basis for judicial review – Lord Mustill - Parliament has a right to make whatever laws it thinks right - Courts interpret the laws, and see that they are obeyed. This requires the courts on occasion to step into the territory which belongs to the executive, to verify [that the powers accorded by Parliament to the executive are being lawfully exercised – i.e. judicial review].
R v somerset county council ex parte fewings [1995]
Laws J - … the judicial review court is not concerned with the merits of the decision under review. The court does not ask itself the question, ‘Is this decision right or wrong?’ […] whether he himself would have arrived at the decision in question …
Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister of civil service [1985]
Lord DIplock - one can conveniently classify under three heads the grounds upon which administrative action is subject to control by judicial review - · The first … I would call “illegality,” the second “irrationality” and the third “procedural impropriety.”
Anisminic ltd v foreign compensation commisiion [1969]
Ultra vires
Boddington v British Transport police [1999]
Ultra vires
US supreme court in chevron USA v National resources defense Council (1984)
American case - scope / limit of statutory power discussion
R v Monopolies and mergers commission ex parte south yorkshire transport [1993]
Exception to the page doctrine - where a statutory provision is particularly vague should the courts accept any reasonable interpretation of it by the decision maker
Miller [2019]
political decision - prerogative power
Padfield [1968]
official must use power for a proper purpose or courts shall intervene
Hanks v minister of housing and local government [1963]
official must consider relevant considerations and disregard irrelevant ones
Municipal council of Sydney v campbell [1925]
Purpose may be stated expressly or may have been implied
R v secretary of state for foreign and common wealth affairs ex parte world development movement Ltd [1995]
purpose of statute - example of courts looking at merits of case rather than just the legality - was overcome by new law passed by parliament
Veneables [1998]
public concern should not be a relevant consideration for the courts
R (corner house research) v Director of the serious fraud office [2009]
Although determining which reasons/factors are relevant or irrelevant is for courts, it is for decision-maker to decide how much weight to give to each relevant factor
Lavender and sons Ltd v Minister of housing and Local government [1970]
institution does not have the power to sub delegate powers to another
Carltona Ltd v commissioner of Works [1943]
minister remains consitutionally responsible for decisions made by their civil servants
Barnard v National Dock Labour Board [1953]
Institution does not power to sub delegate powers to another
British oxygen v minister of Technology [1971]
Discretion must be retained by the decision maker chosen by parliament - general rule: anyone who exercises a statutory discretion must not “shut his ears to an application” - but a public authority may have had to deal with similar applications and evolved a policy so precise that it could well be called a rule. This is permitted provided the authority is willing to listen to anyone with something new to say
r v port of London authority ex parte Kynoch [1919]
policy development raises a tension between two apparently conflicting sets of values - flexibility/justice vs Certainty, clarity, consistency
Associated provincial picture houses ltd v Wednesbury corporation [1948]
Wednesbury unreaonableness test - something so absurd that no sensible person could ever dream that it lay within the powers of the authority … [A] conclusion so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could ever have come to it.
r v secretary of state for the environment, ex parte hammersmith and fulham London borough council [1991]
- Super- Wednesbury test - courts intervene only if decision crosses a high threshold of unreasonableness
- Court says when allocation of funds is involved they would only intervene if the decision maker acted in bad faith or the unreasonableness is doubtless.
- This is because decisions on economy require political judgement and therefore is the place of the commons and not the courts to debate
R v Ministry of defence policy ex parte smith [1996]
sub wednesbury test - Usually concerns instances where the interest that is affected by a decision is quite sensitive – when a right of an individual is affected
r (daly) v secretary of state for the home department [2001]
proportionality test in reasonablesness
R v chief constable of sussex ex parte international traders ferry ltd [1999]
Proportionality well-established in EU law. Applied by English courts in cases with EU dimension
James v UK [1986]
Proportionality’s variable and context dependent intensity
Case C-331/88 Fedesa [1990]
Proportionality’s variable and context dependent intensity
Keyu v Foreign secretary [2015]
UKSC did not take up proportionality replacing wednesbury unreasonableness
Raji v general medical council[2003]
Lord steyn affirms that procedural fairness has “an instrumental role in promoting just decisions” - leading to better decision-making.
r v sussex justices ex parte McCarthy [1924]
rule against bias - actual fairness v appearance of fairness