As is well known, the appendix is a useless body part*. In Kolner v Alberta (Director of SafeRoads), 2024 ABKB 456, Bokenfohr J had to consider the legal utility of an appendix. It turns out that an appendix fares no better in administrative law than it does in the popular imagination. I have noted in […] Read more
A favoured tool of contemporary legislatures and regulators is the administrative monetary penalty. Rather than imposing criminal liability on regulated entities for breaches of industry standards, legislatures have regularly chosen to empower regulators to impose fines — often substantial — on offenders. These administrative monetary penalties have become an important part of the modern regulatory […] Read more
The High Court of Australia has for several years now struggled with the concept of materiality in the law of judicial review (see my piece from 2019). The judges have at times been squarely at odds about the meaning and scope of the concept. In LPDT v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural […] Read more
The theme for next year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium is “Justifying Judicial Review”: Western constitutional democracies live in turbulent times, buffeted by populism, technological development, globalization and other challenges. Some see the courts as bastions of principle capable of helping countries to navigate contemporary storms. But others view judges as unelected philosopher kings who […] Read more
