ABSTRACT
Administrative tribunals might well be referred to as ‘administrative courts’ since usually their task is to adjudicate disputes which arise from the statutory regulation of a wide variety of situations, some of which will involve decisions or other action by administrative agencies, or the relationship between private individuals. It will be seen later in this chapter that tribunals have been established for many purposes, including the adjudication of disputes between landlord and tenant about the payment of rent and between an individual and a local authority about the payment of compensation for the compulsory acquisition of land. They have been established also in order to decide appeals from decisions of other tribunals and administrative agencies on issues such as statutory entitlement to certain welfare benefits. The Council on Tribunals, described below, has defined a tribunal (in the absence of any statutory definition) as ‘any person or body (other than a court of law) exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions which are provided by or under statute’ (Annual Report, 1993-94). Annually tribunals deal with more than a quarter of a million cases.
