Judicial review has found itself in the government’s crosshairs on several occasions in the last decade or so. Ministers asserted again and again during that period that immigration judicial review took up too much time and resource; that unmeritorious judicial review cases of all types clogged up the system and led to delay; and that too much judicial review was brought to prolong unsuccessful political campaigns, with the attendant risk that the judiciary would stray into matters not properly for them.
The most recent road to reform began with the launch—in July 2020—of the Independent Review of Administrative Law, referred to universally now as IRAL. Despite its name, the focus was on judicial review, rather than the wider field of administrative law; but even so, there was, initially at least, considerable concern among legal practitioners that it would generate far-reaching proposals and threaten the pivotal role played by judicial review in upholding the rule of law.
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