Judicial review

Judicial review

Immigration judicial review: heads of review and procedure

Judicial review is the process whereby the judges of the Administrative Division of the High Court, and from 1 November 2013 the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) exercise jurisdiction over the lawfulness of acts or omissions of public bodies and a supervisory jurisdiction over inferior courts and tribunals.

Acts or omissions will be unlawful and open to review if they fall under one of the available public law grounds of judicial review. The key grounds include:

•
illegality, ie where there was an error of law in the making of the decision
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irrationality (in the Wednesbury sense) or unreasonableness
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procedural impropriety and unfairness, and
•
the decision was in breach of the Human Rights Act 1998 (usually involving an assessment of proportionality)

Consideration of the lawfulness of acts can also include consideration of the lawfulness of delegated legislation and of the Immigration Rules.

Judicial review is only available if an applicant has standing, ie sufficient interest in the decision, and if all other available remedies have been exhausted.

The issue of standing will generally not be

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