Michael Zander on the Faulks Review: will it end as a government stitch-up?
- Despite the many professional and public bodies, research organisations and practitioners who have responded to the Independent Review of Administrative Law’s call for evidence by declaring there is no case for legislative reform of judicial review, it remains to be seen whether the government will take those views on board.
The Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL) was launched in July 2020 ‘following the government’s manifesto commitment to guarantee that judicial review (JR) is available to protect the rights of the individual against an overbearing state, while ensuring that it is not abused to conduct politics by another means or to create needless delays’. The familiar dog-whistle phrase ‘conduct politics by another means’ indicated the political agenda.
The review, chaired by Lord (Edward) Faulks, had five other members: Celina Colquhoun; Professor Carol Harlow QC (Hon), LSE; Nick McBride, college lecturer in law at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge; Professor Alan Page, professor of public law at University of Dundee; and Vikram
