Title:
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Against monism and in favour of an anatomical approach to administrative law
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This thesis is an exercise in arguing for an 'anatomical approach to administrative law'. In doing so the thesis aims to show, broadly, two main things. Firstly, that if we pull administrative law apart and examine the basic legal and normative structures in play we see that those structures are both complex and varied in three core senses: administrative law doctrine interacts with an array of different administrative schemes, administrative law doctrine intervenes to protect a variety of different values and interests and administrative law is concerned with legal relationships of different kinds. Secondly, that by pulling apart administrative law in this way it becomes possible to construct understandings of particular doctrines within it which are capable of capturing the legal and normative complexities with which judges must grapple in giving effect to them. The later chapters of the thesis will make use of three case studies of central doctrines within administrative law - procedural fairness, legitimate expectations and standing - through which to demonstrate this. Throughout this thesis the anatomical approach to administrative law for which the thesis argues is juxtaposed to an alternative approach: 'monism'. A scholar making use of a monistic approach would proceed by seeking to identify some singular 'organising concept' which is capable of unifying administrative law. A core aim of this thesis is to demonstrate, through an exploration of one important, and increasingly influential, monistic approach to administrative law (the 'public interest conception'), why administrative law is not amenable to analysis of this kind. The basic legal and normative components which make up administrative law, it is argued, are too complex and varied for the subject to be adequately analysed through the lens of a singular 'master idea or principle'.
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