Indigenising Administrative Law in Common Law Systems

by Assistant Professor Swati Jhaveri

The research project brings together a group of international scholars from a range of common law jurisdictions for a symposium to discuss the way in which common law principles of administrative law have been indigenised in these jurisdictions. In particular, the workshop will bring together scholars from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The aim of the workshop is to explore ways in which common law jurisdictions (that were traditionally influenced by the English common law) have departed from those roots (including, for example, in relation to the foundations and theories that inform the scope of administrative law and its norms; a sense of how the courts relate to the executive and the principles (and boundaries of those principles) that inform conversations about 'good governance' in these systems). This symposium will focus on ways in which different common law systems have indigenised administrative law.

Such a cross-border conversation on the continuing influence and impact of English administrative law has not yet happened. The overall goal of the symposium is to develop a much richer and robust understanding of 'common law' administrative law that is not skewed towards an English law led understanding, especially for the benefit of 'newer' jurisdictions which are undergoing a more nascent indigenisation (as is the case in Singapore and Hong Kong)..