Category: Administrative law
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Hleb Buziuk: Independent by Assertion: The Immigration and Asylum Bill and the Re-Departmentalisation of Adjudication
On 13 July 2026, the Immigration and Asylum Bill is scheduled to receive its second reading in the House of Commons. Public attention has fixed on Part 2 and its Article 8 clauses. This post is about Part 1 (clauses 1-16 and Schedules 1-3), which has attracted less commentary but may prove the more consequential.…
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Eleana Kasoulide: The Internal Administrative Law of Designing Digital Public Services
Digitalisation has become an inseparable aspect of delivering public services, inspiring conversations around the impacts of digitalisation on citizens and of what it means for states to transition into being e-governments. Despite these ongoing discussions a largely overlooked topic is the process by which digital public services are designed and delivered in the first place.…
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Alistair Mills: The Interpretation of Policy and the Proscription of Palestine Action
As is well known, the group “Palestine Action” has been subject to proscription by the Home Secretary under the Terrorism Act 2000. The Court of Appeal has recently handed down judgment in litigation challenging the designation: Secretary of State for the Home Department v R (Huda Ammori) [2026] EWCA Civ 721. The Divisional Court had…
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Yossi Nehushtan and Faye Thomas: Retrospective Rule Making, the Rule of Law, and UK Immigration Policy
In this post we differentiate between two types of retrospective rule making (RRM): RRM in the strong sense and RRM in the weak sense. We then argue that both types of RRM may violate the rule of law to a similar extent, and that both can be morally indefensible, and potentially illegal. We conclude by…
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Jonathan Collinson: A New Independent Appeals Body for Immigration and Asylum: Accountability, Transparency, and Oversight
This post examines questions of accountability, transparency and oversight in the context of the UK government’s proposal for a new Independent Appeals Body for immigration and asylum decisions, replacing the existing First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (hereafter, FtT). It is prompted by the government’s official consultation which, amongst other things, asked: What mechanisms should…
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Daniella Lock: In Defence of the Divisional Court’s Palestine Action Ruling
This post responds to important issues raised by Dane Luo and Gabriel Tan with regard to one of the grounds upheld by the Divisional Court in the judicial review of Palestine Action’s proscription (R (Ammori) v Home Secretary [2026] EWHC 292 (Admin)). The ground was upheld on the basis that the Home Secretary’s proscription decision considered…
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Dane Luo and Gabriel Tan: Non-Textual, Purposive Limits on Policy? The Divisional Court’s Errors on the Home Secretary’s Proscription Policy in the Palestine Action Judgment
On 13 February 2026, the Divisional Court (Dame Victoria Sharp PKBD, Swift and Steyn JJ) upheld the judicial review brought against the proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000: R (Ammori) v Home Secretary [2026] EWHC 292 (Admin).The Court dismissed two grounds: failing to give Palestine Action the opportunity to make representations (ground…
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Chris Rowe: Human rights as ceiling: the government’s asylum reform proposals
When the government announces a ‘crackdown’ or some new tough policy on immigration or asylum, it is important to recognise that what this means (at most) is that migrants will be treated in accordance with the new policy unless their Convention rights require that they are treated otherwise; at most, since often when the policy…
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Marianne Holbrook: Should Decisions of the Attorney General be Judicially Reviewable?
In July 2025, the Divisional Court in R (Campbell) v Attorney General [2025] EWHC 1653 (Admin), held that “there is a category of functions of the Attorney General which are immune from review on any ground”. In November, the Supreme Court granted Mr Campbell direct leave to appeal. In the meantime, the Law Commission of…
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Alex Schwartz: Recent Attempts to Curb Judicial Power in the United Kingdom
The era of Conservative Party government from 2015–2024 was one of great constitutional turmoil in the United Kingdom. In addition to (and partly because of) the controversies surrounding the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, this was also a period of heightened debate about the role of the judiciary, fuelling an unprecedented movement within and…