A Values-based Approach

Abstract

Abstract This chapter introduces the means of achieving the three objectives of this book: to enhance the understanding, guide the future development and justify the core features of contemporary administrative law. First, the historical backdrop to the development, in recent decades, of general principles of administrative law is explained. Second, the four values which provide structure to the law of judicial review of administrative action are introduced: individual self-realisation, good administration, electoral legitimacy and decisional autonomy. Third, an explanation on how these values are used to interpret the core features of contemporary administrative law is given. Fourth, the chapter addresses the book’s comparative approach, justifying the choice of Australia, Canada, England, Ireland and New Zealand as its focus. Fifth, this chapter situates the book’s interpretivist approach, which relies on a plurality of values, in the existing scholarly literature on administrative law, noting that unlike others this book does not argue that there is one single meta-value, meta-principle or meta-concept around which the subject revolves. Lastly, this chapter provides an overview of the rest of this book.