UKAJI

By Brian Thompson In this blog post, Brian Thompson reviews a new book by Michael Adler, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment? Benefit Sanctions in the UK (2018, Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies). Michael Adler explains that the project of this book is to give a critical account of the benefit sanctions regime in the UK and to … Continue reading →

  By Chris Gill Public-sector complaint systems often do not meet the needs of those who use them, those who operate them, and others who have a stake in them.[1] They can be hard to access, they can be costly, and their broader public value is rarely demonstrated. At the same time, the theoretical potential … Continue reading →

By Ben Walsh The ‘A Place at the Table’ project identified that young people (YP) with SEND currently have few opportunities to enact their legal rights when it comes to having a voice in decision-making. The project called for more research into processes for resolving disputes about SEND issues, focusing on participation and outcomes for … Continue reading →

I have arranged a seminar, with the UK Administrative Justice Institute and the Public Law Project, on frontline decision-makers and public law. Detailed are available on the attached flyer. To register for the seminar (places are limited) please email me at joseph.tomlinson@kcl.ac.uk. via Public Law and Administrative Decision-Making — Law + Good Administration

By Dr Jaime Lindsey In this blog post, Jaime Lindsey of the University of Essex School of Law explains her recent research on the Court of Protection, carried out in light of increased transparency and openness in this jurisdiction. Her forthcoming article on the research, ‘Testimonial Injustice and Vulnerability: A Qualitative Analysis of Participation in … Continue reading →

This blog post summarises a recent roundtable discussion that sheds light on an aspect of administrative justice in action in everyday life: the participation of young people in resolving disputes with local authorities about their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support needs. The full report of the roundtable discussion is available to download here and for viewing … Continue reading →

The proposal for an access to justice audit of ODR is an important call and its motivating rationale is one with which I sympathise, writes Joe Tomlinson of Sheffield University and the Public Law Project. 41 more words via Measuring to know and measuring to manage: an ODR access to justice audit — Law, Technology and … Continue reading →

A new publication, Responsive Legality: The new administrative justice by Dr Zach Richards (Keele University), explores the legal and moral values underpinning public decision-making in the 21st century. Zach is the winner of the UKAJI New Voices award, presented at the New Voices in Administrative Justice workshop at the University of Sheffield in September 2017. Responsive Legality is an … Continue reading →

Two books of interest to the administrative justice community have recently been published. Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment by Michael Adler subjects benefit sanctions in the UK to a critique from the perspective of administrative justice. Nobody’s Law: Legal Consciousness and Legal Alienation in Everyday Life by Marc Hertogh examines legal consciousness and, through empirical … Continue reading →

By Maurice Sunkin In December 2017, the UK Administrative Justice Institute (UKAJI) reached the end of its first phase, which began in September 2014 with funding from the Nuffield Foundation. Since the start of 2018, with support from the University of Essex School of Law, UKAJI has continued to support and grow the administrative justice … Continue reading →

By Nick O’Brien Nick O’Brien reviews a new book by Naomi Creutzfeldt on her study exploring national differences in complainants’ levels of trust in ombuds. In her timely new book, Ombudsmen and ADR: A Comparative Study of Informal Justice in Europe, Naomi Creutzfeldt (University of Westminster) shows that ‘the relationships people have with the informal … Continue reading →

  Today the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights publishes a damning report on the Home Office’s treatment of two members of the Windrush generation who were wrongfully detained and whose cases reflect, in the views of the Committee, what was ‘in all likelihood a systemic failure’. By Margaret Doyle The Joint Committee on … Continue reading →

In this blog post. Lauren Cooper discusses her research on agency and fairness in the asylum process and the strategies used by asylum seekers, based on ethnographic observations of tribunal hearings. By Lauren Cooper Justice. Everyone recognises the word, yet the meaning is often contested. Dictionary definitions indicate ‘fairness’ and ‘reasonableness’, but it is rarely … Continue reading →

In our Research Roadmap published in February of this year, UKAJI cited the roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) as an example of the extraordinary impact of administrative justice on the day-to-day lives of people. In this blog post, we consider the recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) on its independent review of UC, … Continue reading →