The idea of administrative justice is central to the British system of public law, more embracing than judicial review, or even administrative law itself. It embraces all the mechanisms designed to achieve a proper balance between the exercise of public and quasi-public power and those affected by the exercise of that power.

This book contains revised versions of the papers given at the International Conference on Administrative Justice held in Bristol in 1997. Forty years after the publication of the Franks Committee report on Tribunals and Inquiries, the conference reflected on developments since then and sought to provoke debate about how the future might unfold.

Participants included policy makers, tribunal chairs and ombudsmen, other decision-takers as well as academics - a formidable combination of expertise in the operation of the administrative justice system.

Among the themes addressed in the papers are the following: the effect of the changing nature of the state on current institutions; human rights and administrative justice; the relationship between decision taking, reviews of decisions, and the adjudication of appeals; and the overview of administrative justice, taking into account lessons from abroad.

The new millenium provides an opportunity for the reappraisal of the British system of administrative justice; this volume presents an indispenable repository of the ideas needed to understand how that system should develop over the coming years.

Contributors:

Michael Adler, Margaret Allars, Dame Elizabeth Anson, Lord Archer of Sandwell, Michael Barnes, Julia Black, Christa Christensen, David Clark, Gwynn Davis, Godfrey Cole, Suzanne Day, Julian Farrand, Tamara Goriely, Michael Harris (Ed), Neville Harris, Tony Holland, Terence Ison, Christine Lally, Douglas Lewis, Rosemary Lyster, Aileen McHarg, Walter Merricks, Linda Mulcahy, Stephen Oliver, Alan Page, Martin Partington (Ed), David Pearl, Jane Pearson, Paulyn Marrinan Quinn, John Raine, Andrew Rein, Alan Robertson, Roy Sainsbury, John Scampion, Chris Shepley, Caroline Sheppard, Patricia Thomas, Brian Thompson, Nick Wikeley, Tom Williams, Jane Worthington, Richard Young