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Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Intermediate
Former School/College
Pre-requisites
Unit aim
Studies how the law makes public decision-makers accountable for how they exercise their discretions, powers, and duties. Various control mechanisms - particularly courts, merits appeals tribunals, Ombudsman, Freedom of Information (FoI) and privacy legislation at Commonwealth level - aim at curbing bureaucratic mistakes and excesses, and at ensuring sound, rational, and consistent decision-making by governments.
Unit content
Topic 1: Introduction: The framework of Australian administrative law
- History
- The prerogative writs
- The New Administrative Law reforms
- Discretions vs rules
Topic 2: Judicial review
- Merits versus legality / procedure
- The constitutional separation of powers
- Public vs private decision-makers
Topic 3: Natural justice / procedural fairness
- When is it required?
- The hearing rule
- The rule against bias
- Legitimate expectation
- Private (domestic) bodies
Topic 4: Statutory authorisation for decisions
- Statutory interpretation and “state of mind” clauses
- Jurisdictional facts
- Mandatory / invalidatory legislative clauses
- Bad faith
- Unauthorised purposes / motives
- (Ir)relevant considerations
Topic 5: Fettering discretion
- Estoppel / prior representations
- Contracts
- Fixed rule or policy
- Acting under dictation
Topic 6: At the outer boundary of legality / merits
- Unreasonableness
- No evidence
Topic 7: Merits appeals tribunals
- The Administrative Appeals Tribunal
- Powers and functions
- Interaction with judicial review
Topic 8: Executive rule-making
- Subordinate legislation
- Ministerial policies
Topic 9: Standing for judicial review and merits appeals
- Rationales for standing (locus standi) as a threshold
- Common law tests for judicial review
- Statutory tests for judicial review
- Statutory tests for merits appeals
- Proposals for open standing
Topic 10: Judicial responses to unlawful government action
- Consequences of unlawfulness: void vs voidable
- Remedies
- Discretion to withhold or postpone a remedy
- Failure to carry out a legal duty
- Ouster clauses
- Constitutional writs
Topic 11: Access to government information
- Right to reasons
- Freedom of information
- Privacy laws
Topic 12: Other methods of governmental accountability
- Ombudsman
- Human rights and anti-discrimination laws
- Alternative dispute resolution
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | identify and explain the central principles and the various elements which inform Australia's federal system of administrative law | |||||||
| 2 | evaluate the differences between review of the lawfulness of a decision, and review of the merits of a decision | |||||||
| 3 | demonstrate an understanding of the legal and administrative mechanisms by which the actions and decisions of government officials and agencies may be challenged | |||||||
| 4 | identify and explain the legal and administrative mechanisms by which government officials and agencies may be rendered accountable for their actions | |||||||
| 5 | analyse the legal and administrative consequences of unlawful administrative action | |||||||
| 6 | apply the relevant legal principles to identify the remedies available to persons whose interests have been affected by the unlawful exercise of administrative power. | |||||||
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
-
identify and explain the central principles and the various elements which inform Australia's federal system of administrative law
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
evaluate the differences between review of the lawfulness of a decision, and review of the merits of a decision
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
demonstrate an understanding of the legal and administrative mechanisms by which the actions and decisions of government officials and agencies may be challenged
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA4:
-
identify and explain the legal and administrative mechanisms by which government officials and agencies may be rendered accountable for their actions
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA4:
-
analyse the legal and administrative consequences of unlawful administrative action
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA4:
-
apply the relevant legal principles to identify the remedies available to persons whose interests have been affected by the unlawful exercise of administrative power.
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA4:
Prescribed texts
- Creyke, Robin, McMillan, John & Smyth, Mark, 2015, Control of Government Action: Text, Cases & Commentary, 4th edn, Butterworths/ LexisNexis, Chatswood, NSW. ISBN: 9780409339352 .