Are you doing research on administrative justice?

If so, we want to hear from you!

UKAJI’s primary focus is to help develop research to understand how the systems of administrative justice operate, how users experience the systems, and the implications of reforms. One of our key goals is to ensure that research is used to enable the systems to work as they should and that change is informed by robust, independent research evidence.

As part of UKAJI’s work, we want to disseminate information about current research projects related to administrative justice that are being undertaken in the UK at the moment. These may be funded by research councils or other bodies, or are being undertaken without specific financial support. Many of these projects are at universities, but we are aware of research being done in other settings and by independent researchers and practitioners. The focus of this particular initiative is on work-in-progress; we appreciate that projects may not yet have findings or clear conclusions.

In October 2015, we published the first edition of our Current Research Register. This lists ‘live’ research projects, many of which have a more detailed research profile in which the researcher explains the aims of the research. More about the register, and links to each of the research profiles, is available here.

The register is an organic resource, and we are well aware that work is going on that we haven’t included. We plan to update the register every six months, and we intend to add to it and build it up as a resource.

The research projects are all works in progress – as is the register. 

How do I know that what I’m doing is ‘administrative justice’?

You might not use the term ‘administrative justice’ to describe the field in which you work. Administrative justice concerns how we interact as individuals when the government, or those working on its behalf, act in ways that appear wrong, unfair or unjust. It includes matters of everyday importance to all of us, such as housing, education, health care, immigration, planning, social security and taxation. It is therefore a cross-disciplinary field.

 “Administrative justice’ has at its core the administrative decisions by public authorities that affect individual citizens and the mechanisms available for the provision of redress.” Nuffield Foundation

Administrative justice is about ensuring that public bodies and those who exercise public functions make the right decisions. How do these decisions affect people (as citizens, consumers, individual or groups) and what are the mechanisms for providing redress when things go wrong?

Why participate?

Being involved in the network and having a summary of your research published can help you:

• make it known what work you are involved in
• link up with other researchers with similar interests
• seek advice or input on your research while it’s in progress
• know what other work is being done
• inform funders and commissioning bodies about what research is currently in progress
• increase the potential impact of your work

What should I do?

Get in touch with us about the research you’re doing so we can include it in the next edition of the current Research Register, at the end of March 2016. If you would like your research included, please download and complete the Current research profile template and email it, along with a photo of yourself, to mdoyle@essex.ac.uk. Or simply get in touch and let us know what you’re working on!