The Anatomy of Administrative Law

Winner of the 2022 Inner Temple New Authors Book Prize. This book seeks to further our understanding of the nature of administrative law doctrine and adjudication. It has three main aims. The first is to improve understanding of administrative law’s ‘anatomy’ by pulling the subject apart and exploring the nature of the legal structures at play in adjudication. In doing so, the book emphasises three main ways in which administrative law’s anatomy is both complex and diverse, namely: - administrative law doctrine interacts with a broad array of legislative frameworks; - administrative law adjudication seeks to accommodate a variety of legal values; and, - administrative law is concerned with legal relationships of different kinds. The second aim is to illustrate the importance of recognising the complexity and variety of administrative law’s anatomy in three particular doctrinal contexts: procedural review, legitimate expectations and standing. The third and final aim is to raise an important but under-explored question: is it plausible and useful to attempt to make sense of administrative law doctrine by reference to a singular organising concept or principle? The overarching message of the book is one of cynicism. The complexity and variety of administrative law’s legal structures probably means that attempts to explain the field ‘monistically’, while they may capture important themes, will be unhelpfully reductionist. Ambitious and thought-provoking, this is an important new statement on administrative law.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction I. What is ‘Administrative Law’? II. The Book’s Three Main Aims III. The Trajectory of Argument: An Overview of the Book’s Chapters IV. Scope V. Conclusion 2. The Development of Modern Administrative Law I. Administrative Law’s Modern History II. Two Core Lessons III. Conclusion 3. The Anatomy of Administrative Law I. First Sense of Complexity and Variety: The Interrelationship of Administrative Law Doctrine and the Legislative Framework in the Background of the Case II. Second Sense of Complexity and Variety: Administrative Law Protects an Array of Different Values, Purposes and Interests III. Third Sense of Complexity and Variety: Administrative Law Adjudication Concerns Different Kinds of Legal Relationship IV. Conclusion 4. Procedural Review I. What is ‘Procedural Review’? II. The Evolution of Procedural Review III. Why is it Proving Difficult to Develop an Overarching Account of Procedural Fairness? IV. Do the Difficulties in Developing a General Account of Procedural Review Indicate a Lack of Structure in Judicial Reasoning? V. Conclusion 5. Legitimate Expectations I. What is a ‘Legitimate Expectations’ Case? II. The Development of Legitimate Expectations III. Why is an Overarching Explanation of Legitimate Expectations Proving Elusive? IV. Is the Law Characterised by Unpredictability, Incoherence and Lack of Judicial Restraint? V. Conclusion 6. Standing I. The Evolution of Standing II. Why has a Singular Approach to Standing not Emerged? III. How do the Courts Determine Whether an Applicant has a Sufficient Interest? IV. Conclusion 7. Monism I. Two Monistic Accounts of Administrative Law and their Deficiencies II. The Appeals of Monism III. Conclusion 8. Conclusion I. The Three Main Aims of the Book Revisited II. Practical Implications III. Final Words