Supreme command

Common law jurisdictions do not generally have experience of reviewing legislative or administrative actions in the abstract. However, the process allowing the legal officers to refer bills and measures to the UK Supreme Court to obtain a judgment on whether the action is within the competence of the devolved legislature is perhaps in the same territory. For common lawyers, a Diceyan system – in which litigation over constitutional, administrative and legislative matters is dealt with by the ordinary courts in the context of concrete cases – is our natural environment.

In other jurisdictions, especially those with civil law traditions, administrative law and oversight of public administration are usually the bailiwick of a supreme administrative court (SAC). This collection of essays explores the purpose and nature of SACs. 

One overwhelming impression is that there are almost as many different types of SAC, with differing functions and relations to other branches of government, as there are legal systems. Some, such as the French Council of State (which has influenced similar systems in much of western Europe), have an advisory function, which allows them to comment on the constitutionality of proposed legislation. This is something that would be anathema to the common law, although the King’s Bench was frequently called upon to perform a similar function for the monarch in an earlier period of English legal history. Some SACs are purely judicial; some are embedded in the executive or legislative branches, raising debates over separation of powers; some are, in effect, a wholly separate system-within-a-system.

The work itself is readable. Though composed of separate essays, these are clustered around the themes of the relationships between the SAC and the various branches of government. Well researched and clearly set out, the contributions give a good overview and introduction to a topic that will probably not be familiar to many readers. 

This is not really a work with much practical use for the day-to-day practitioner, but it will be of interest to those who are curious about how other systems reach different solutions to similar problems.  

James E Hurford, solicitor, London