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Administrative law is the body of law which regulates the actions of administrative agencies of government. It is a considered a branch of public law. Administrative law as a body of law deals with the decision-making of administrative tribunals or boards that are part of a state regulatory scheme in the areas of international trade, manufacturing, the environment, taxation, broadcasting, immigration and transportation to name a few areas of regulation.
1 Administrative law: common law countries
Generally speaking most countries that follow the principles of English common law have developed principles of judicial review that limit the reviewability of decisions made by administrative law bodies. Often these doctrines are coupled with legislation or other doctrine that sets down standards for proper rulemaking.
Administrative law may also apply to review of decisions of so-called quasi-public bodies such as not-for-profit corporations, disciplinary boards and other decision-making bodies that effect the legal rights of members of a particular group or entity.
While administrative tribunals are often governed by governmental bodies, their decisions are often reviewable by a court of general jurisdiction under some principle of judicial review based upon due processDue process of law is a legal concept that ensures the government will respect all of a person's legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights, when the government deprives a person of life, liberty, or property. Due process has also bee (United States) or fundamental justiceFundamental justice is a term in Canadian administrative law that signifies those basic procedural rights that are afforded anyone or anybody facing an adjudicative process or procedure that effects fundamental rights. Used often in the area of Canadian a (Canada).
The basis of this review by the courts may be limited to certain questions of fairness or the procedures that insure that both sides of a dispute are treated equally before any decision making occurs or that the decision is not patently unreasonablePatently unreasonable or the patent unreasonableness test is a legal test created by common law and used in Canada by a court performing judicial review of administrative decisions. It is the highest of three standards of review, those being correctness, (under Canadian law) or Wednesbury unreasonablenessWednesbury unreasonableness is a term that is used to refer to the principle enunciated in the case of Associated Provincial Picture Houses v. Wednesbury Corporation [ 1948 ] 1 KB 223 courts will not intervene to correct a bad administrative decision on g (under British law) or arbitrary and capricious (U.S. Administrative Procedures ActThe Administrative Procedures Act governs the way in which independent agencies of the United States federal government may propose and establish regulations. It also sets up a process of direct review for agency decisions by federal courts. See also: Rul and New York law).
These powers of review of administrative decision, while often governed by statute were original developed out of the royal prerogative writIn English law, the prerogative writs were those granted only if the king (at first) or the judge (since then, and still today in the U. and the Courts of England and Wales) decided to issue them as a favour in an unusual situation, because they interferes of English lawEnglish law the law of England and Wales (but not Scotland and Northern Ireland) is considered by some to be one of Britain's great gifts to the world. Also known generally as the common law (as opposed to civil law), it was exported to Commonwealth count such as the writ of mandamus and the writ of certiorari.
