Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter explains how international law is made through the formation of customary international law and the making of treaties, and how tribunals apply other sources of law such as ‘general principles’ of law and ‘soft law’ principles derived from resolutions of international organizations.
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Chapter
2. How International Law is Made
Chapter
18. Administrative Justice: Tribunals and Ombuds
This chapter considers the main ways in which disputes between individuals and public bodies are resolved outside the court system in what is widely referred to as the landscape of ‘administrative justice’. The discussions cover initial decision-making; accessing the administrative justice ‘system’; and the two pillars of administrative justice—tribunals and ombuds.
Chapter
17. Tribunals
Tribunals have operated for over 200 years. They are specialised courts dealing in specific areas of legal dispute such as employment, housing, immigration, mental health, social benefits, and tax. This chapter explains the development of tribunals. It examines the major reforms that have taken place in the twenty-first century, resulting in most tribunals being re-organised into ‘chambers’ within the First-Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal. The chapter explains the composition of tribunals and the rules on appointment of tribunal members. It explains the ways in which tribunal decisions may be challenged, either by an appeal to another tribunal or to the courts, or through judicial review. The chapter examines the advantages of tribunals over courts and considers whether tribunals are becoming too much like the mainstream courts.
Chapter
4. Dispute Resolution for Businesses
This chapter identifies courts and tribunals as the place where the laws discussed in the previous chapters are interpreted and utilized in the legal system. The jurisdiction of the courts and the personnel within them are described and a comparison is drawn between these forums for the administration of justice. It is important for those in business to be aware of the work of at least one tribunal—the Employment Tribunal, as many employment-related disputes ultimately end up here. Also, the courts in the English legal system, and the increasing use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, are relevant to businesses as they are used either to settle disputes or to avoid them altogether. Because the term ‘court’ is difficult to define in any practical sense, the chapter uses a description of what a court does.
Chapter
15. Tribunals
This chapter discusses tribunals and their role within the administrative justice system. It considers the purpose of tribunals, their advantages over the courts and the difference between tribunals and judicial review. The chapter than outlines the structure of tribunals, focusing on the two-tier system introduced by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and the roles of the First-tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal. The ability to appeal from the First-tier Tribunal to the Upper Tribunal is then outlined together with the possibility of making an onward appeal on a point of law to the Court of Appeal and potentially direct to the Supreme Court. The chapter also analyses the development of ‘Cart judicial reviews’, which is when the Upper Tribunal is itself reviewed by the High Court, and scrutinises proposals to abolish this procedure. Different aspects of tribunal procedure, including oral or paper-based hearings, and different approaches to conducting oral hearings are also discussed. The chapter concludes by considering potential reforms, including the move to holding tribunals online.
Chapter
17. Tribunals
Tribunals have operated for over 200 years. They are specialised courts dealing in specific areas of legal dispute such as employment, housing, immigration, mental health, social benefits, and tax. This chapter explains the development of tribunals. It examines the major reforms that have taken place in the twenty-first century, resulting in most tribunals being re-organised into ‘chambers’ within the First-Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal. The chapter explains the composition of tribunals and the rules on appointment of tribunal members. It outlines the ways in which tribunal decisions may be challenged, either by an appeal to another tribunal or to the courts, or through judicial review. The chapter examines the advantages of tribunals over courts and considers whether tribunals are becoming too similar to the mainstream courts.
Chapter
12. Tribunals
Panels, committees, tribunals, referees, adjudicators, commissioners, and other public authorities decide many thousands of disputes each year over (for example) entitlement to benefits, or tax liability, or political asylum, or the detention of a patient in a secure hospital. The massive array of agencies reflects the great variety of benefits and burdens that twenty-first-century government assigns to people. The array had no overall organization until 2007, when Parliament transformed it into a complex system. This chapter explains the benefits of integrating these decision-making agencies in the new system. The law needs to tailor their structure, processes, and decision-making techniques to the variety of purposes they serve. And the law needs to achieve proportionate process by reconciling competing interests in legalism and informality in tribunal processes.
Chapter
13. The Relationship between International and National Law
Eileen Denza
This chapter examines the relationship between international and national law. It discusses the approach of international courts and tribunals; the approach of national parliaments and national courts; and some problems that arise in national courts. While prospects for a harmonized approach to the relationship between international and national law are dim, conflict can be avoided through the close involvement of international lawyers in the treaty-making and ratification process; attention at the time of ratification to implementation questions; the teaching of international law as part of the professional training of judges; and expert assistance to national courts when international law questions arise.
Chapter
3. The judicial function in the law of evidence
This chapter discusses the different functions in a court and how the court is composed of a tribunal of law and a tribunal of fact. In a jury trial, the judge decides matters of law and is the tribunal of law, while the jury is the ‘fact-finder’, the tribunal of fact. In a non-jury trial, the judge or magistrates perform both functions. This chapter discusses the functions of the judge in legal issues concerning evidence and, in particular, when a case is withdrawn from the jury because there is ‘no case’; judicial discretion; and admissibility of evidence illegally or unfairly obtained.
Chapter
13. Justice in the Modern Administrative State
Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter discusses the role of a range of accountability methods to scrutinize the executive’s use of power. This includes the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, who is now also known as the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the role of tribunals in contrast to courts, of public inquiries and of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms too. It also examines the limitations of each of these methods, and how they may complement each other to provide different forms of scrutiny.
Chapter
11. Ending Compulsion under the Mental Health Act 1983
This chapter examines the various ways in which a period of compulsion, whether in hospital or in the community, imposed under the terms of the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983, can be brought to an end. The discussions cover the discharge of Part II patients from hospital, guardianship, or a community treatment order; discharge of Part III patients; mental health review tribunals; substantive powers of discharge; tribunal and decisions; and challenging tribunal decisions.
Chapter
15. Administrative Justice and Accountability
Tribunals, Ombudsmen, and Public Inquiries
This chapter focuses on key methods of administrative justice and accountability: tribunals, ombudsmen, and public inquiries. It explains that the administrative justice system refers to all the processes ensuring that public bodies make decisions lawfully, fairly, and consistently with principles of good government. Regardless of its different definitions, administrative justice ensures the fair and effective operation of public services. It sets out the function of tribunals and public inquiries in monitoring the state’s fulfillment of its responsibilities to the public, and notes that regardless of their differences, tribunals, ombudsmen, and inquiries all provide ways of holding the executive to account for their actions.
Chapter
14. The Relationship between International and National Law
Eileen Denza
This chapter examines the relationship between international and national law. It discusses the approach of international courts and tribunals; the approach of national parliaments and national courts; and some problems that arise in national courts. While prospects for a harmonized approach to the relationship between international and national law are dim, conflict can be avoided through the close involvement of international lawyers in the treaty-making and ratification process; attention at the time of ratification to implementation questions; the teaching of international law as part of the professional training of judges; and expert assistance to national courts when international law questions arise.
Chapter
16. Administrative Justice: Tribunals and Ombuds
This chapter considers the main ways in which disputes between individuals and public bodies are resolved outside the court system in what is widely referred to as the landscape of ‘administrative justice’. The Chapter explains the nature and importance of administrative justice, including the need to ensure good quality and just initial decision-making by public bodies; the challenges faced by those accessing the administrative justice ‘system’ to question initial decisions; and the two principal pillars of the administrative justice system tribunals and the use and role of public sector ombuds. It also contains a case study based on the Windrush scandal.
Book
Timothy Endicott
Administrative Law explains the constitutional principles of the subject and their application across the range of twenty-first-century administrative law. The focus on constitutional principles is meant to bring some order to the very diverse topics with which you need to deal if you are to understand this very complex branch of public law. The common law courts, government agencies, and Parliament have developed a wide variety of techniques for controlling the enormously diverse activities of twenty-first-century government. Underlying all that variety is a set of constitutional principles. This book uses the law of judicial review to identify and to explain these principles, and then shows how they ought to be worked out in the private law of tort and contract, in the tribunals system, and in non-judicial techniques such as investigations by ombudsmen, auditors, and other government agencies. The aim is to equip the reader to take a principled approach to the controversial problems of administrative law.
Chapter
30. International criminal justice
This chapter discusses the development of international criminal law and institutions, international criminal courts and tribunals, and international criminal justice in national courts. These developments respond to but also reflect repeated failures to prevent serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The work of the International Criminal Court, specialized criminal tribunals and ‘hybrid’ tribunals is outlined.
Chapter
14. Challenging government action
This chapter focuses on the administrative justice system. Administrative justice refers to the systems that enable individuals to resolve complaints, grievances, and disputes about administrative or executive decisions of public bodies, and to obtain redress. Grievance mechanisms exist to achieve redress and to ensure accountability and improved public administration. They include formal court action through judicial review, but range well beyond the courts to informal, non-legal mechanisms. Whereas a public inquiry may concern a grievance of a larger section of the public and can raise political issues, an inquiry by an Ombudsman concerns a grievance of an individual or small group, with a different fact-finding process. Meanwhile, tribunals determine rights and entitlements in disputes between citizens and state in specific areas of law, such as social security, immigration and asylum, and tax.
Chapter
14. Challenging government action
This chapter focuses on the administrative justice system. Administrative justice refers to the systems that enable individuals to resolve complaints, grievances, and disputes about administrative or executive decisions of public bodies, and to obtain redress. Grievance mechanisms exist to achieve redress and to ensure accountability and improved public administration. They include formal court action through judicial review, but range well beyond the courts to informal, non-legal mechanisms. Whereas a public inquiry may concern a grievance of a larger section of the public and can raise political issues, an investigation by an Ombudsman concerns a grievance of an individual or small group, with a different fact-finding process. Meanwhile, tribunals determine rights and entitlements in disputes between citizens and state in specific areas of law, such as social security, immigration and asylum, and tax.
Chapter
6. The administrative justice system
This chapter focuses on administrative justice. It reflects on the nature of administrative law and the role it plays in modern society, overseeing the relationship between the citizen and the state. Once again adopting the holisitic approach, the chapter discusses not only the role of the courts, but also the tribunals, ombudsmen, and other bodies and processes that together make up the institutional framework of administrative justice. It notes some of the key changes being introduced as a result of the Transformation Programme and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also considers the particular responsibilities of Members of Parliament in holding the Government to account. In addition, it asks who has general oversight of the system and whether current oversight arrangements are adequate.
Chapter
13. Statutory Tribunals
This chapter examines the rationale for giving the task of resolving disputes to statutory tribunals rather than courts. It also describes the structure and organization for most tribunals and how they conduct dispute resolution adjudication. The hearing technique of redress is considered alongside administrative review, particularly the use of mandatory reconsideration in social security to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of dispute resolution. Their place in a staged approach, proportionate dispute resolution, is outlined and the possible benefit of conceiving administrative justice as a system with a focus on users is raised as well as some of the issues raised for users by the adoption of digitalization. An outline is given of the oversight activities conducted by the non-statutory Administrative Justice Council.
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