The "New" Administrative Law: Theory and Practice

Abstract

This thesis sets out to trace and explain developments in the so-called "new" Commonwealth administrative reforms which came into being in the latter half of the 1970s and early 1980s. It has been undertaken avowedly from two viewpoints: firstly - as will be immediately apparent - by someone who does not have a legal background, and secondly, by someone who is both a student and practitioner of public administration. I developed an interest in this subject when I became involved in the implementation of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 1982. When I began researching FOI with a view to producing a thesis which concentrated on that concept as part of the new package, I found myself becoming more interested in administrative law per se. My interest came to focus on the possible implications of the new enactments for a number of relationships: at the academic level, between the new administrative law and public administration; at the institutional level, between community, public service, executive, judiciary and parliament. I came to realise that I was engaged in examining the relationship between law and politics in the Australian system of government. This thesis, then, is in reality an essay in constitutional history and theory, since I found that I could most usefully bridge the gap between law and politics from that standpoint.