Ensuring Good Administration through the Development of Judicial Review in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Administrative Law relating to judicial control in Sri Lanka has developed several principles such as proportionality, legitimate expectation, public trust doctrine and right to equality by two ways of challenging the discretionary powers of public authorities: writs and fundamental rights. Application of these grounds reflects the tendency of upholding the rule of law. However these have nurtured the scope of exercising the power of judicial review of a given jurisdiction and accordingly have given finer meaning to the exercise of judicial power of the people by the judiciary and attempt to uphold the concept of ���??good administration���??. In this discussion, though defining the concept of good administration is one of the objectives of the research, it is a difficult task. Good administration is a polysemic and evolutionary concept which means different things in different national systems and its content tends to evolve according to the necessary changing social and economic environments and community interests. In this backdrop, the study seeks to define the concept within the scope of Administrative Law in Sri Lanka. Further, the study will look at the concept as an aspect of lawfulness and from its function perspective. Hence, the development of judicial review has been considered mainly for an in-depth analysis. Therefore, the main problem of the research is that does the development of judicial review is compliance with the principles of good administration and if so to what extent the standards of judicial review contribute to the attainments of the regulatory goals of administrative law. For providing an answer, the study examines the relationship between administrative procedures, the duty of giving reasons, and the citizens' participation in relation to the quality of the administrative behavior. Further, the research takes into account some national experiences and will reflect about crucial issues connected with fundamental rights and writs to challenge administrative actions and how those ensure good administration. In line with these reasoning, researcher attempts to draw the relationship between good administration and the development of judicial review and suggest recommendations to ensure good administration. The research will adopt a qualitative approach and as sources of the research, secondary resources such as library research and internet that include books, journal articles are utilized. In addition, as primary sources, the study will consider the role of the Constitution and other relevant legislation. Case law intervention is discussed for analyzing the compliance with the concept.