Public Law Adjudication in Common Law Systems: Process and Substance

This volume arises from the inaugural Public Law Conference hosted in September 2014 by the Centre for Public Law at the University of Cambridge, which brought together leading public lawyers from a number of common law jurisdictions. While those from such jurisdictions share background understandings, significant differences within the common law world create opportunities for valuable exchanges of ideas and debate. This collection draws upon one of the principal sub-themes that emerged during the conference – namely, the the way in which relationships and distinctions between the notions of ‘process’ and ‘substance’ play out in relation to and inform adjudication in public law cases. The essays contained in this volume address those issues from a variety of perspectives. While the bulk of the chapters consider topical issues in judicial review, either on common law or human rights grounds, or both, other chapters adopt more theoretical, historical, empirical or contextual approaches. Concluding chapters reflect generally on the papers in the collection and the value of facilitating cross-jurisdictional dialogue.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction John Bell, Mark Elliott, Jason NE Varuhas and Philip Murray 2. Public Reason and Administrative Legitimacy Jerry L Mashaw 3. Administrative Law: A Values-based Approach Paul Daly 4. The Public Interest Conception of Public Law: Its Procedural Origins and Substantive Implications Jason NE Varuhas 5. Process, Substance and the History of Error of Law Review Philip Murray 6. The Growth of Substantive Review: The Changes, their Causes and their Consequences Mark Aronson 7. ‘Blasphemy Against Basics’ : Doctrine, Conceptual Reasoning and Certain Decisions of the UK Supreme Court Christopher Forsyth 8. The Legitimacy of Expectations About Fairness: Can Process and Substance be Untangled? Matthew Groves and Greg Weeks 9. Judicial Review of Delegated Legislation: Why Favour Substantive Review over Procedural Review? Andrew Edgar 10. Transubstantiation in Canadian Public Law: Processing Substance and Instantiating Process Mary Liston 11. Is Judicial Review Qualitative? Alan Robertson 12. Remedies for Laws that Violate Human Rights Kent Roach 13. ‘Striking Back’ and ‘Clamping Down’: An Alternative Perspective on Judicial Review Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings 14. The Use and Effects of Judicial Review: Assumptions and the Empirical Evidence Maurice Sunkin and Varda Bondy 15. Common Law Public Law: Some Comparative Reflections Cheryl Saunders 16. Comparison, Realism and Theory in Public Law David Feldman

About the Author :
John Bell is Professor of Law and Mark Elliott is Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge. Jason NE Varuhas is Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Philip Murray is a former Fellow in Law at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Review :
In an age that has seen the publication of a number of books of essays on administrative law, this publication stands above the crowd, by reason of its coherent development of themes and the uniformly high quality of the essays. The authors and the publisher are to be congratulated.