Ombudsman, Tribunals and Administrative Justice in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

Abstract

ABSTRACT This editorial introduces the new editor of the Journal’s Ombudsman, Tribunals and Administrative Justice section; highlights the editorial team’s four strategic priorities for the section; and identifies four research priorities which the editorial team wishes to promote. For strategic priorities, the first is developing ‘applied administrative justice’ scholarship consciously directed at resolving practical administrative justice problems. Second is growing the connections between the Journal and civil society organisations, including those working on the frontline with individuals and communities most exposed to, and dependent on, public bodies. Third is expanding the interdisciplinary reach and content of the section, particularly to mental health and accounting. Fourth is encouraging early career researchers to become more involved in the section. As to research priorities, the editorial team identifies four themes: money and administrative justice, encouraging researchers to grapple with the financial benefits of their proposals and the effectiveness of different funding mechanisms; mental health and administrative justice, particularly through engaging with the fields of ”therapeutic jurisprudence” and ”law and emotion”; new technologies and administrative justice, particularly how virtual delivery changes experiences of public bodies; and hybridity and administrative justice, examining the complicated range of publics, privates, and charitables involved in modern public service delivery.