Wednesbury Unreasonableness

Question 1

Wednesbury

Answer 1

A decision is unreasonable enough to warrant judicial intervention when “no reasonable authority could have come to it” but this requires something overwhelming (red hair e.g.)

Question 2

Smith

Answer 2

A decision is unreasonable when it is “beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision-maker”

Question 3

How might the high threshold of reasonableness be defined?

Answer 3

JR must be confined to a supervisory, rather than appellate jurisdiction; the high threshold for unreasonableness may be justified because where it is satisfied the Minister has exceeded his powers and is acting unlawfully

Question 4

Cambridge Health Authority ex p B

Answer 4

Where the decision is one on resource allocation, it will be nearly impossible for a court to rule that the decision was irrational (medical context)

Question 5

Hammersmith

Answer 5

Given that the implementation of national economic policy is a matter of political judgment, “if the decisions have been taken in good faith within the four corners of the Act, the merits of the policy underlying the decision are not susceptible to review by the courts”

Question 6

Smith (policy)

Answer 6

“Major policy changes should be the produce of mature reflection, not instant reaction”.

Question 7

Smith (2 quotes on human rights)

Answer 7

o “The more substantial the interference with human rights, the more the court will require by way of justification before it is satisfied that the decision is reasonable”
o “While the court must properly defer to the expertise of responsible decision-makers, it must not shrink from its fundamental duty to “do right to all manner of people.”

Question 8

Swindon NHS Trust

Answer 8

A policy making vague reference to “exceptional circumstances” will only be rational if if it is possible to envisage, and the decision maker does envisage what those exceptional circumstances must be. Moreover each case must be assessed on its own merits to see if it satisfies the requirement for exceptional circumstances.

Question 9

Daly, Lord Cooke (2 quotes)

Answer 9

“I think the day will come when it will be more widely recognized that Wednesburyw as an unfortunately retrogressive decision in English admin law.”

I doubt whether “the law will ever be satisfied in any admin field merely by a finding that the decision under review is not capricious or absurd.”