Fully revised and updated to include the latest administrative law decisions, Douglas and Jones is a leading text on administrative law. Already notable for its accessibility and background material, the authorship of the 9th edition has been extended to a new generation of administrative law educators, who have helped trim and modernise the material. Professor Michael Head and Associate Professor Yee-Fui Ng are joined by two younger accomplished educators, Dr Jason Donnelly and Michael Morgan.
Key Features of the new edition:
- Updated to include every major High Court administrative law case since the 8th edition.
- Full outline and discussion of the proposed Administrative Review Tribunal.
- Discussion and details of the new National Anti-Corruption Commission.
- Important extracts and analysis of the High Court’s most significant recent decisions, including on procedural fairness, unreasonableness, judicial review and jurisdictional error.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Table of Cases
Table of Statutes
1. Issues and Problems in Australian Administrative Law
2. The Rise (and Decline?) of Administrative Law
3. Freedom of Information and Government Secrecy
4. Understanding Decisions: Reasons, Discovery and Evidence
5. Auditors-General, Corruption Commissions and Whistleblowers
6. Investigating Administrative Conduct: The Ombudsman
7. Administrative Review on the Merits
8. Delegated Legislation
9. The Duty to Act within Powers
10. The Exercise of Discretionary Power
11. The Duty to Act for Proper Purposes and According to Relevant Considerations
12. Duties in Relation to Findings of Fact
13. Reasonableness, Rationality and Other Limitations to Administrative Decision-Making
14. The Right to Procedural Fairness: General Principles
15. The Right to be “Heard”
16. The Rule Against Bias
17. Limits to Fairness
18. The Effect of Errors on the Validity of Decisions
19. The Availability of Judicial Review
20. Judicial Remedies
21. Discretion, Timing and Outcomes
22. Standing to Seek Judicial Review
Table of Sources
Index
Reviews of previous editions
The eighth edition of this leading administrative law text continues its reputation as a foundational reference book for both students and practitioners in this area. It covers this area of law in a way that is both clear and digestible, but also comprehensive, such that it provides a particularly useful introduction for those with less familiarity with the subject.
As above, the text is comprehensive. It considers issues commonly arising such as freedom of information, right to reasons, merits review, and the various grounds of judicial review – including acting ultra vires, acting for proper purposes and according to relevant considerations, findings of fact, reasonableness and rationality and issues of procedural fairness. It also, however, extends its consideration to the rule against bias, public interest immunity as well as more general questions of the modernisation of, and threats to, administrative law.
In each instance, its discussion is supplemented by case extracts or excerpts from other sources, as well as “Notes and questions”, providing the reader an opportunity to test their understanding. Helpfully, this latest edition also includes fulsome explanation of all relevant High Court cases in this area since the seventh edition was published in 2014.
As such, this text remains a useful addition to the library of those seeking a clear, yet relatively comprehensive, overview of this often difficult and confused area of law.
Queensland Law Reporter – 29 June 2018 – [2018] 25 QLR
Reviews of previous editions:
The book is essentially a students’ book of cases and materials. However it is also useful to the practitioner who does not deal with problems in administrative law on a regular basis … The book is a good introduction to the subject and would enable a student to obtain a good basic understanding and would enable the occasional practitioner in the field to obtain a lead into what he or she would have to master to deal with the problem in administrative law that has recently landed on the desk.
(2009) 83 Australian Law Journal 774
[T]he book provides a comprehensive coverage of administrative law for students and legal practitioners, particularly with its commentary and extracts from case law and legislation and the Notes and Questions sprinkled throughout the text. It would be a useful addition to any law library.
Australian Law Librarian, Vol 18 No 1, 2010
… I can thoroughly recommend this work. It is well-written, well set out, up to date, and it gives comprehensive coverage of the subject. It is well worth the purchase. It is prepared and written by an obvious expert.
Damien J Cremean, Law Institute Journal Victoria, October 2009
This edition introduces new excerpts from recent High Court, Federal Court and Supreme Court decisions and a section on human rights legislation in the ACT and Victoria. Even in areas where there has been no significant development in case law or legislation since the last edition, commentary has been updated to include references to recent articles and reports. The text not only states the existing law, but also foreshadows the possible future directions of development. Extracts from Australian Law Reform Commission and Administrative Review Council reports are provided, reviews and inquiries in relation to law reform are referred to and the impact of human rights legislation in the United Kingdom is noted as indicating a possible catalyst for similar developments here. The law is current to 1 November 2008.
Ethos, ACT Law Society Journal, June 2009
