ABSTRACT
The judiciary has always jealously guarded the principle that only they can interpret the law and therefore define the limits of any statutory authority. The legal procedures involved in seeking judicial review are contained in the Rules of the Supreme Court 1965, Order 53. The principles of natural justice apply, not only to courts of law, but also to any administrative body acting judicially or quasi-judicially. The duty to act judicially exists where any body of persons has legal authority to determine questions affecting the rights of subjects. It can usually be taken that an error of law has occurred when, on a correct statement of the law, the public body could not have reached the decision that it did. This is an important general principle recognised in European Union law which is applied to constrain public authorities from imposing obligations beyond those needed to achieve the objective of the measure concerned.
