Tjaart Jurgens Maré Doctor Legum Universiteit van die Vrystaat

Baxter maak in sy werk "Administrative Law" die stelling dat die omwentelinge ʼn
diepgaande invloed op die Engelse Administratiefreg op drie terreine gehad het. Hy sê -
“1. First, the basis for judicial review of administrative action was finally clarified.
With the abolition of Star Chamber, the Kings Bench was able to ‘step into the
breach’ as general supervisor of administrative authorities. Parliament had,
however, established its political supremacy over the crown, and its unrivalled
sovereignty was an inevitable result of the constitutional contest. The
common-law judges, whose allegiance lay with Parliament, had therefore to
limit the rationale of judicial review. They could no longer speak of
‘controlling’ Acts of Parliament. Instead they had to justify their interference
by referring to the will of Parliament : by reviewing administrative action, they
asserted, they were simply ensuring that the will of Parliament had been
carried out, no less and no more. This remains the rationale for judicial
review to the present day, both in England and in South Africa. It is both the
strength and the weakness of judicial review, the courts are able to claim the
backing of Parliament in their orders, yet in applying the law they are tied to
construction of so-called ‘parliamentary intent’ and they have no business
imposing other standards upon the administration.
2. Secondly, a process was set in motion whereby ministers of the Crown
became answerable to Parliament. In substance, if not in form, the crown had
become the agent of Parliament. For as long as Parliament retained its
political superiority over the executive, this convention of ministerial
responsibility remained an important method of controlling the policies
formulated and applied by the executive, and of the merits of discretionary
administrative action. It had the effect of complementing judicial supervision,
and it encouraged judges to restrict the scope of judicial review.
3. Thirdly, English lawyers developed a deep suspicion for the concept of
special administrative courts. The Stuart claims of divine right and to
‘inherent’ prerogative powers had been defeated and all manifestations of
these pretensions were eliminated. It has been suggested that ‘the
destruction of the royal bureaucracy in 1640-1 can be regarded as the most
decisive single event in the whole of British history’ 58 . Any prospect of a
specialist jurisdiction developing within the administration was scotched and
the sanctity of the courts of general jurisdiction was guaranteed. Hostility to
special administrative tribunals and courts led Dicey to place the ‘ordinary’
courts of law at the centre of his formulation of the Rule of Law, and his
condemnation of systems of administrative courts had a profound effect upon
58 Hill, 1967:76 aangehaal in Kahn-Freund 1979.
28