ABSTRACT
The courts have jealously guarded the right to natural justice when considering the law relating to adjudication in the UK. There is no doubt that the Irish courts would apply the principles applicable to natural justice with equal, if not greater, ardour. The principles of natural justice are guaranteed by the Irish Constitution (Article 40.3). That of itself does not necessarily give rise to any distinction between the law in Ireland and the UK in respect of adjudication, because the 1996 Act, as amended, does not exclude the application of natural justice in so far as that concept applies to the procedures governing the adjudication process (albeit paragraph 18 of the Scheme, which permits the adjudicator to receive confidential information from one party, may be an exception to this).
