ABSTRACT
One of the primary purposes of Public Law is the continuation of the effective working of the public service, because acts by administrators must be taken with the right motives using the right procedures. This article unearths the principles applied in the common law and civil law systems in determining the validity or invalidity of administrative acts. For the government to function smoothly, executive decisions and acts must be void of bias, and the courts must exercise a fair hearing for every citizen. Besides, administrators need not act in illegality or incompetence, lest they be amenable before the courts. All branches of government ought not to take decisions tainted with error or procedural improprieties. The article also reveals that some administrative acts are excluded from judicial review because of their politically sensitive nature. The author uses a comparative law approach, drawing from jurisprudential and case law examples from the common law, the civil law and even the American judicial systems. Judicial review is an example of the separation of powers in a modern governmental system where the judiciary is one of three branches of government. This principle is interpreted differently in different jurisdictions, which also have differing views on the different hierarchy of governmental norms. As a result, the procedure and scope of judicial review differs from country to country and state to state, though a thread of similarity runs through all legal systems in relation to judicial review. This article therefore surveys the concept as it applies in the common law and civil law systems, which two systems reflect the practice in most countries in the world, such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, France, and Cameroon (faced with a mix of both systems).
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WILSON Y.N TAMFUH,
LL.B, Yaounde, LL.M, Jos, Nigeria, PhD, Yaounde II, DD, ICOF, USA,
Founder, Centre for Law and Development,
Visiting Lecturer, Advanced OHADA School of Magistarcy,
Porto Novo, Republic of Benin,
Reader, College of Law,
Afe Babalola University,
Km 8.5, Afe Babalola Way,
PMB 5454, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State,
Nigeria.