The Normative Structure of Australian Administrative Law

Abstract

This article analyses the normative structure of Australian administrative law through the prism of two distinct intellectual approaches to the law of judicial review: the ‘grounds approach’ and the ‘statutory approach’. We explore the development of both approaches and track the contemporary ascendance of the statutory approach in light of the political and constitutional context within which the practice of judicial review is situated. We then reflect on the ways that each responds to two central legitimacy problems which must be confronted by modern administrative law: the democratic legitimacy of judicial review and the legitimacy of the forms of law associated with contemporary administrative government.