PO210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Inherent Jurisdiction, Mandamus, Ultra Vires
Document Summary
Administrative decision making (1) powers of the decision maker. Again here, the procedure used to make decisions may be prescribed in the enabling legislation, or an agency may be given the power (by statute) to devise the procedure itself. The principles of administrative law aim at ensuring the process is fair. Fairness is a concern given (a) the significant discretion many administrative agencies wield over decision making, and (b) the fact that decision makers are not electorally accountable (at least directly). Fairness of decision making: a key tenet to the fairness of a decision is whether the procedure used to arrive at the decision was fair. To ensure procedural fairness, two items must be satisfied: (1) a right (of those affected by the decision) to be heard; (2) a right to have the decision made by an independent and impartial decision maker. Administrative law uses the reasonable person standard to determine whether a given decision maker was biased.
