This chapter complements Chapter 11 of Government Accountability: Australian Administrative Law, third edition. It introduces grounds of review under statutory schemes of judicial review.

This chapter complements Chapter 11 of Government Accountability: Australian Administrative Law, third edition. It introduces grounds of review under statutory schemes of judicial review.

This chapter presents the five traditional grounds for judicial review: inexistence, lack of competence, breach of an essential procedural requirement (the so-called external legality checks) and abuse of power and illegality (issues of ‘internal legality’). The chapter then explores the values which are enforced through judicial review, especially fundamental rights and principles of good administration. Section 3 explores the extent to which constitutional rights and the European Convention have taken over from the ‘general principles of law’ developed by the Conseil d’Etat as the main sources of rights protection. In relation to principles of good administration, the expansion of requirements has come mainly from legislation and government circulars, but there has been a strong influence from developments within the European Union.