UKAJI

Young people’s voice and the ‘chicken soup’ effect   A new report explores the issue of young people’s participation in resolving disputes and complaints about their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The report is the result of A Place at the Table, a knowledge exchange project carried out between November 2017 and March 2019 … Continue reading →

A manifesto for legislative reform of the ombudsman sector By Richard Kirkham   The 2016 draft Public Services Ombudsman Bill looks destined to become the latest failed attempt to reform the ombudsman sector but this post argues that now is nevertheless a good moment to prepare for a stronger and more long-term revision of the … Continue reading →

APPG on Consumer Protection – Report from the Ombudsman Inquiry. By Gavin McBurnie   The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Consumer Protection (the Group) published the report of its inquiry into ombuds on Wednesday 30 January 2019. The inquiry was the result of ‘long-standing concerns about the wide variation in the standards of complaints handling and … Continue reading →

Report on the Administrative Justice Council Academic Panel’s Pop-up event, 12 February 2019     By Margaret Doyle   Administrative justice met The Apprentice at a pop-up event organised by the Academic Panel of the Administrative Justice Council earlier this month. At what was badged a ‘speed-dating’ event for researchers, representatives of organisations interested in … Continue reading →

  Defining vulnerability in the enforcement of public debts Jennie Bunt This is a revised version of an original blog-post on the website of The Justice Gap   Testing the boundaries of definitions When the accessibility of justice is threatened, considerable strain is placed on legal definitions. Such definitions carve out the boundaries of, for … Continue reading →

Brexit and Administrative Justice: An Early Analysis (Part III – Redress and the Courts)  By Joe Tomlinson   In the previous two posts in this series, I have highlighted some key emerging trends in law and administration linked to Brexit. In this final post, I address the question of where redress procedures and the courts … Continue reading →

Brexit and Administrative Justice: An Early Analysis (Part II – Emerging Trends) By Joe Tomlinson   In a previous post in this series, I introduced a framework for understanding trends in law and administration during the Brexit process. That framework had three parts: internal organisation issues; external coordination issues; and substantive legal issues. In this … Continue reading →

By Chris Gill and Carolyn Hirst     Being Complained About: Good Practice Principles and Guidelines New guidance is being published today, which aims to help organisations provide better support to employees who have been subject to a complaint. Research shows that being complained about can significantly affect employees’ health, wellbeing, and work practice: 71% … Continue reading →

By Joe Tomlinson   Brexit and Administrative Justice: An Early Analysis (Part I – A Framework)   In this series of three blog posts, initially prepared as an informal discussion paper for a Bonavero Institute of Human Rights seminar, I consider the relationship between Brexit, administration, and law. Each of these topics are vast. When … Continue reading →

  The PHSO at the PACAC: Rob Behrens and the Public Administration Committee   By Lee Marsons   On Tuesday 22nd January 2019, Rob Behrens, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombud (‘PHSO’) and Amanda Campbell, the PHSO’s CEO, appeared before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (‘PACAC’) for their periodic interrogation. Watching the evidence … Continue reading →

Book Review Radical Help: How We Can Remake the Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State. By Hilary Cottam. 2018. 308pp. By Carolyn Hirst I first read Radical Help by Hilary Cottam in October last year and I have been urging people to read it ever since. So I am delighted to have the … Continue reading →

By Margaret Doyle   Recent research on the prosecution of parents for not ensuring their child’s regular attendance at school has highlighted the anxiety caused by threats of legal action and the disproportionate impact on women. Many, if not most, of the pupils who are ‘school refusers’ have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This blog … Continue reading →

By Kelly Shuttleworth This post is based on the Report ‘Ombudsman schemes and effective access to justice: A study of international practices and trends’  written for the IBA by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and a related seminar held at the Bingham Centre on 6th December 2018. For wider reading, please see … Continue reading →

By Joe Tomlinson This post, based on a seminar held at King’s College London and supported by the Public Law Project and the UK Administrative Justice Institute, examines the potential for the further development of research at the intersection of public law and administrative decision-making. Speakers at the event included Dr Bernardo Zacka (MIT), Dr … Continue reading →

By Naomi Creutzfeldt In this blog post, Naomi Creutzfeldt reviews a new book by Zach Richards, Responsive Legality: The New Administrative Justice (Routledge 2019). In his recent book, Zach Richards presents a theory of administrative justice for the 21st century: responsive legality. He argues that ‘responsive legality is the new justifying logic of twenty-first-century administrative … Continue reading →

By Lee Marsons Today, I am delighted to publish on behalf of UKAJI the first step in establishing a public database of research related to administrative justice in the United Kingdom. Currently, the database contains around two hundred documents, ranging from books and journal articles, to governmental and third sector reports and House of Commons … Continue reading →

By Jaime Lindsey Meaningful access to justice requires having the ability to participate in decision-making that will directly affect you. Yet analysis of participation in mental capacity law is relatively under-researched compared to other areas of law. This ESRC-funded workshop on ‘Improving participation in Court of Protection proceedings’ allowed those with an interest in participation … Continue reading →

By Dr Zach Richards In this blog post, Zach Richards reviews a new book by Marc Hertogh, Nobody’s Law: Legal Consciousness and Legal Alienation in Everyday Life (2018, Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies). Marc Hertogh’s recent book Nobody’s Law makes a valuable contribution to socio-legal studies of administrative justice. The clear, well-written text published in the Palgrave MacMillan … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →