Administrative Justice in Context

Book excerpt: This book comprises a definitive collection of papers on administrative justice, written by a set of very distinguished contributors. It is divided into five parts, each of which contains articles on a particular aspect of administrative justice. The first part deals with the impact of 'contextual changes' on administrative justice and considers the implications of changes in governance and public administration, management and service delivery, information technology, audit and accounting, and human rights for administrative justice. The second part deals with conceptual issues and describes a number of competing approaches to the administrative justice. The third part deals with the application of administrative justice principles to private law disputes while the fourth part deals with the distinctive characteristics of administrative justice in three other jurisdictions. The final part deals with current developments in administrative justice and the book concludes with a discussion of legislative and policy developments in the UK. The general approach of the book is socio-legal and interdisciplinary. The chapters adopt a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including those derived from political science, public policy, social policy, accounting and information technology as well as from law. Although most of the contributors are academics, some are practitioners. For these reasons, the book should be of interest to lawyers, particularly those with interests in administrative law, and to social scientists, particularly those with interests in public administration, public policy and public management.