THE ROLE OF THE LAWYER IN ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE*

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1970.tb01292.x
Date01 September 1970
AuthorHarry Whitmore
Published date01 September 1970
THE
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
Volume
33
September
1970
No.
5
THE ROLE
OF
THE
LAWYER
IN
ADMINISTRATIVEI
JUSTICE
*
JUST
in case
I
do not manage to do in this lecture what
I
am setting
out
to
do,
I
should explain that over the past twelve months
or
so
I
have been trying to establish by personal observation what the
present role
of
the lawyer is in administrative decision-making.
I
am attempting to give a fair impression of what
I
have seen, not only
in England, but also in the United States
and
Australia.
Also
I
am
attempting to put into words some of my
om
thoughts as to what
the role of the lawyer
should
be.
It
is necessary to point out that
I
am
no$
attempting to
belittle the part that lawyers are currently playing in administrative
activities-there has been
more
than enough of that already.
Certainly
I
have found much to criticise; but
it
is my thesis that
many of the deficiencies of British and Australian administrations
have been caused by the reluctance of lawyers to intervene
decisively. That reluctance has resulted,
no
doubt, from the oft-
expressed views
of
politicians and members
of
the public that
creation of fair procedures and effective review of administrative
decisions, in which lawyers are involved,
will
not
only hamper
eff
mtive administration and speedy decision-making, but will also
provide a bonanza
for
lawyers.
The
ha1 comment is probably best
ignored but the
cc
hampering
view is unfortunately accepted by
too
many people-including eminent lawyers.
I
personally
can
never accept the idea that fair procedures and high-quality judicial
review inevitably result in inefficiency. Perhaps there is some
delay; but this seems
to
me
to
be
a
cheap price to pay
for
fair-
ness
in administration.
I
should confess my special interest in this question.
I
am a
member of an Administrative Review Committee appointed by the
Australian Federal Government to investigate and report
on
the
subject of administrative justice and judicial review. The members
of the committee comprise a Federal judge,
Mi.
Justice Kerr, a
*
This
artic!e i,s based
on
a
Univeraity
of
London Public Lecture
in
Laws
481
delivered
at
the London
School
of
Economics
on
November
‘25,
1969.
VOL.
33
17

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