Public and Administrative Law is the law relating to governmental administration and typically involves judicial review in the Administrative Court of decisions by local authorities or central government departments.  Social Welfare Law, which I practise in, substantially overlaps with Public Law because social welfare is mostly delivered by the State.  The majority of the cases on my Reported Cases page involve State or State-regulated bodies or elements of Public Law.  This page contains occasional further commentary and news on Public Law issues.

Birmingham CC -v- Qasim [2009] EWCA Civ 1080 was the most recent significant public law case I was involved in.  Birmingham, as the local housing authority, claimed the right to terminate certain tenancies on the basis that their own officer had acted fraudulently in granting them, even though the tenants in question were not parties to any such fraud.  You can download my briefing for details and analysis.

The Public Law Project has been the leading source of information about the workings of judicial review and the Administrative Court since their seminal research project, Judicial Review in Perspective.  Last year, they produced The Dynamics of Judicial Review Litigation, written by Varda Bondy and Maurice Sunkin, which considered whether the Bowman reforms of 2000 had increased the likelihood of judicial review claims settling and whether they had made it more difficult for claimants to obtain permission to pursue judicial review.  The conclusion reached is yes to both questions but the journey to that end is as interesting as the end itself.  The opinions and data obtained will confirm the experiences of any who regularly practise in the Administrative Court.

Asylum Support

My website previously contained a summary of the law on asylum support. At the time I provided it, it was not available anywhere else. However, I would now recommend using:-

• LASA's rightsnet web-site
• Benefits for Migrants Handbook (5th edition) - published by CPAG
• Support for Asylum-seekers and other Migrants (3rd edition) by Sue Willman and Stephen Knafler - published by Legal Action Group.

Public Law Defences

As part of the development of human rights law, the House of Lords in Kay v Lambeth LBC [2006] UKHL 10 ruled that defendants in possession proceedings in the county court could raise public law issues which previously could only be raised in the Administrative Court on judicial review. The law has developed further since then. I spoke on the subject at the Public Law Project’s annual conference, Judicial Review Trends & Forecasts on 8th October 2009 and also wrote an article for Judicial Review - Public Law Defences in Possession Proceedings [2010] JR 85. You can now download my latest version of this article incorporating the latest legal developments.