An Introduction to Administrative Law

The two main aims of this book are to provide a clear and relatively short statement of the most important rules concerning judicial review of administrative activity; and, second, a wider framework for understanding those rules. This framework is provided by considering the constitutional context of judicial review; the relationship between judicial review and other mechanisms for controlling administrative activity; and the impact of judicial review on the agencies subject to it. What emerges clearly from considering judicial review in this wider context is that the role of the courts in controlling administrative action is not that of neutral arbiter but of active participant in the governmental decision-making process. The book is important because it fills the need for an introduction to administrative law which is concise but still provides a critical and theoretical analysis of the law.