Judicial Review in English Law

Judicial review is a procedure in English law whereby courts supervise the exercise of power, often by a public body. A person who feels that an exercise of power is unlawful may apply to the Administrative Court (a division of the High Court) for judicial review of a decision. If the court finds the decision unlawful it may have it set aside (quashed) and possibly award damages. A court may impose an injunction upon the public body.

When creating a public body, legislation will often define duties, limits of power, and prescribe the reasoning a body must use to make decisions. These provisions provide a means for a decision to be found unlawful. Alternatively, the UK Government has accepted the European Convention on Human Rights and stated that all law must be consistent with it. In addition there are common law constraints on the decision making process of a body.

Unlike the United States and some other jurisdictions, English law does not permit judicial review of primary legislation (laws passed by Parliament), except in a few cases where primary legislation is contrary to EU law or the European Convention on Human Rights. A person wronged by an Act of Parliament therefore cannot apply for judicial review unless this is the case, but may still argue that a body did not follow the Government's act.

The English constitutional theory, as expounded by A.V. Dicey, does not recognise a separate system of administrative courts that would review the decisions of public bodies (as in France, Germany and many other European countries). Instead, it is considered that the government should be subject to the jurisdiction of ordinary Common Law courts.

At the same time, the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty does not allow for the judicial review of primary legislation (Acts of Parliament). This limits judicial review in English law to the decisions of officials and public bodies, and secondary (delegated) legislation, against which ordinary common law remedies, and special "prerogative orders", are available in certain circumstances.

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