CPL Seminar: 'Judicial Review for Jurisdictional Error of Law: the Decision in R v Bolton'

The Centre for Public Law is hosting a seminar to be given by Philip Murray. He will speak at 5.30pm on Thursday 5 December in the Moot Court Room on "Judicial Review for Jurisdictional Error of Law: the Decision in R v Bolton?".

It is commonly thought that, before the decision in Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission (1968), the approach taken in cases of judicial review for error of law was confused and unpredictable. It is said that the historic distinction the law once drew between jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional errors of law was too unprincipled a way of delimitating the availability of judicial review. Yet with growing dissatisfaction over Anisminic's supposed abolition of this distinction, and the very generous availability of judicial review for error of law that has thus resulted, it might be worth re-assessing this accepted history. This short talk will attempt to offer a partial re-assessment, by looking at judicial review for error of law in the nineteenth century under the prerogative writ of certiorari. The focus of the talk will be on the important decision of the Court of Queen's Bench in R v Bolton (1840). The talk will consider the background behind that case, and its importance to nineteenth-century judicial review.

All Faculty Members and Visitors, PhD students and LLM Public Law students are welcome.

For more information contact Mark Elliott (mce1000@cam.ac.uk)