Skip to content
Carmel Rickard writes…
  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Site Search

Legal tree grows from mustard seed of judicial review

  • 13 March 201924 March 2019
  • by Carmel Rickard

Over a dry decision involving judicial review a judge introduces the shade of a Biblical mustard tree

High Court, Kenya

R v St Joseph’s School Rapogi

Dealing with the development of judicial review, Judge Antony Mrima wrote that the limits of judicial review were continuing to extend to meet the demands of administrative decisions. He added:

  1. The above analysis is in tandem with the holding in Re Bivac International SA (Bureau Veritas) (2005) & EA 43 where the development of judicial review was equated to the Biblical mustard seed which a man took and sow in his field and despite being the smaller of all seeds, it grew to become the bigger shrub of all and became a tree so that the birds of the air came and sheltered in its branches.
  2. Judicial review therefore stems from the doctrine of ultra-vires and the rules of natural justice and has grown to become a legal tree with branches in illegality, irrationality or impropriety of procedure (the three “I’s”) and has become the most powerful enforcement of constitutionalism, one of the greatest promoters of the rule of law and perhaps one of the most powerful tools against abuse of power and arbitrariness.  It is said that the grounds of judicial review can only be compared to the never-ending categories of negligence after the celebrated case of Donoglue vs Stephenson in the last century.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
Tags: Judge Antony Mrima, judicial review, Kenya
Eviction from communal land – only chiefs or traditional authority may do so, says court
Liberia’s “tardiness” over money-laundering investigations condemned by West African regional court

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Carmel Rickard writes... via email. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


Tags

CCMA (3) chief justice (3) Commercial court (2) constitution (5) constitutional and human rights division (3) constitutional court (4) constitutional rights (5) corruption (3) Court of Appeal (4) Covid-19 (6) COVID-19 regulations (3) damages (3) death penalty (5) dismissal (2) Employment law (6) eSwatini (2) Gauteng (3) Ghana (3) high court (23) Judge John Mativo (2) judicial independence (3) judicial review (3) Judicial Service Commission (3) jurisdiction (3) Kenya (15) Law Society of Kenya (3) Lesotho (5) magistrate (5) Malawi (8) Namibia (13) Rwanda (2) SA (4) SA Constitutional Court (2) SADC Tribunal (2) SA Labour Court (2) security forces (4) sentencing (4) South Africa (4) Supreme Court (11) Tanzania (7) torture (4) Uganda (9) UK (2) Zambia (6) Zimbabwe (14)

Recent Posts

  • Preserve your independence, court urges Namibia’s election commission 19 July 2020
  • African Court tells Tanzania: your constitution violates basic rights 16 July 2020
  • Government’s ‘contempt’ raised in challenge to Tanzania’s bail-ban laws 22 May 2020
  • Malawi appeal court judges set new election standards 22 May 2020
  • What orders did the court issue in the case brought by the family of Collins Khosa? 16 May 2020

Archive

Site by Neogek
Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress
 Logo Header Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Subscribe to Carmel Rickard writes... via email. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.