TY - CHAP

T1 - Tribunal Reform and Administrative Justice

AU - Nason, Sarah

AU - Pritchard, Huw

PY - 2024/4/11

Y1 - 2024/4/11

N2 - This chapter considers the place of tribunals within the broader notion of ‘administrative justice’. Many common law jurisdictions saw an apparent ‘rise’ of administrative justice corresponding with systemic tribunal reforms, including amalgamation, and the creation of oversight bodies, alongside, in some cases, the codification of administrative law and rights to administrative justice. Tribunals have since been challenged by austerity (impacting users, public bodies and tribunal budgets), a rise in other administrative review and redress mechanisms, declining systematic oversight, coupled with loss of political support for the notion of ‘holistic’ administrative justice, and digitalisation. This chapter focuses on common cross-cutting issues in tribunal reform, including amalgamation/rationalisation, ‘creeping legalism’, tribunals and multi-level governance, the relationship between tribunals and administrative law, oversight, and digitalisation. We conclude that conceptions or models of administrative justice that focus only on institutional structures or modes of adjudication may be of decreasing relevance, whereas those that focus on underpinning lived experiences of uses and other actors, values, principles, and administrative law doctrines, will be more instructive to understanding tribunal developments.

AB - This chapter considers the place of tribunals within the broader notion of ‘administrative justice’. Many common law jurisdictions saw an apparent ‘rise’ of administrative justice corresponding with systemic tribunal reforms, including amalgamation, and the creation of oversight bodies, alongside, in some cases, the codification of administrative law and rights to administrative justice. Tribunals have since been challenged by austerity (impacting users, public bodies and tribunal budgets), a rise in other administrative review and redress mechanisms, declining systematic oversight, coupled with loss of political support for the notion of ‘holistic’ administrative justice, and digitalisation. This chapter focuses on common cross-cutting issues in tribunal reform, including amalgamation/rationalisation, ‘creeping legalism’, tribunals and multi-level governance, the relationship between tribunals and administrative law, oversight, and digitalisation. We conclude that conceptions or models of administrative justice that focus only on institutional structures or modes of adjudication may be of decreasing relevance, whereas those that focus on underpinning lived experiences of uses and other actors, values, principles, and administrative law doctrines, will be more instructive to understanding tribunal developments.

KW - Tribunals administrative justice reforms

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781509966905

BT - Administrative Tribunals in the Common Law World

A2 - Thomson, Stephen

A2 - Groves, Matthew

A2 - Weeks, Gregg

PB - Bloomsbury

CY - Oxford

ER -