ABSTRACT
Judicial review represents the means by which the courts control the exercise of governmental power. Government Departments, local authorities, tribunals, state agencies and agencies exercising powers which are governmental in nature must exercise their powers in a lawful manner. Judicial review has developed to ensure that public bodies which exercise law-making power or adjudicatory powers are kept within the confines of the power conferred. Judicial review is only available to test the lawfulness of decisions made by public bodies. Judicial review derives from the historical power of the courts to keep inferior bodies within their legal powers. While ‘public administration’ may be traced back to Elizabethan times, it was in the mid-nineteenth century that government expanded its legislative and administrative functions into areas hitherto untouched. Between 2007 and 2012, the volume of applications for judicial review increased by 86 per cent.
