This collection of essays presents opposing sides of the debate over the foundations of judicial review. In this work, however, the discussion of whether the ultra vires doctrine is best characterized as a central principle of administrative law or as a harmless, justificatory fiction is located in the topical and political context of constitutional change.
The jurisprudential analysis of the relative merits of models of legislative intention and judicial creativity provides a sound base for consideration of the constitutional problems arising out of legislative devolution and the Human Rights Act 1998. As the historical orthodoxy is challenged by growing institutional independence, leading figures in the field offer competing perspectives on the future of judicial review.