This course is an introductory course examining administrative law – administrative law builds on the principles of the rule of law and the separation of powers. It is concerned primarily with the activities of the executive branch of government and the legal regulation to which those activities are subject. For example, administrative law recognizes a duty of fairness owed by public decision-makers to those affected by their decisions.
The courts have developed a distinctive jurisprudence governing the manner in which public decision-makers exercise their statutory mandates and discretion under those statutes. For this reason, statutory interpretation is a key feature of administrative law. While courts supervise the decision-making of public officials acting under statutory authority, they have also recognized that those officials may be entitled to deference from the court according to the standard of review doctrine. Further, those decision-makers, whether acting as part of a tribunal, regulatory agency, board, commission or as a public servant, are affected by institutional factors that are also subject to administrative law.
Administrative law is relevant and important to many other substantive areas of law, including labour law, immigration law, constitutional law, environmental law, banking and securities law, poverty law, human rights law and others spheres of public law.
