ABSTRACT
Despite the existence of a wide variety of administrative remedies such as the appeal, described in the previous chapter, the individual who wishes to defend, establish or assert his legal rights in the face of administrative action usually has an opportunity of so doing before a court of law. In this context the individual will look for the protection of the law through any one or more of the remedies which can be granted by a court of law, hence the reference to ‘judicial remedies’. In most cases the remedy sought will attempt to deal with an ultra vires act or decision of an administrative agency in proceedings before the High Court, which has the inherent power to review the legality of the actions and decisions of administrative agencies and inferior courts. The judicial remedies for ultra vires actions and decisions are the declaration, injunction, certiorari, prohibition and mandamus which are described later in this chapter. It should not be forgotten that on a prosecution for non-compliance with an administrative order, notice, licence or some item of delegated legislation, it may be possible to raise what is, in effect, a defence of ultra vires. This form of remedy would apply equally to any civil enforcement where, again, the argument would be that there can be no breach of or non-compliance with something which does not exist in law, that is, something which is ultra vires. In some instances it is the case that statutory administrative schemes provide for general appeals to an inferior court where that court can look at the merits of any decision or other administrative action. In the case of such a general appeal the court has wide powers to look afresh at the decision or other action and to substitute its own decision, for example. Such general appeals are in contrast to the more restricted appeals on a point of law which go to the High Court. Both categories of appeal are dealt with in the present chapter which deals also with the limited remedy of damages in administrative law and the remedy of annulment before the European Court of Justice in respect of unlawful administrative action within the European Economic Community. It is proposed to deal first with the facilities for appeals, followed by the High Court’s inherent powers of review by reference to the doctrine of ultra vires, the remedy of damages and the power of annulment in the European Court of Justice.
