Priestley 11 · Usually second year
Administrative Law for Australian law students
Administrative Law is about the limits on government decision-making, and it is the subject where statutory interpretation stops being a technique and becomes the subject matter. Almost every answer starts with reading the provision that confers the power, properly.
What the subject covers
- The grounds of judicial review, and the distinction from merits review
- Jurisdictional error and the consequences of invalidity
- Procedural fairness: the hearing rule and the rule against bias
- Tribunals and merits review
- The Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth) and section 75(v) of the Constitution
- Statutory interpretation in the review context, including mandatory and directory requirements
- Reasons, freedom of information, and other accountability mechanisms
Topic coverage varies between law schools and between jurisdictions. Your subject guide is the one that counts.
Cases you will meet in an Australian Administrative Law course
Three decisions that turn up in Administrative Law across Australian law schools. Some of them are English decisions that Australian courses still teach as core authority, so this is a list of what you will be taught rather than a list of Australian judgments. Treat it as a starting point rather than a reading list. Your course sets its own, and it is the one that counts.
Kioa v West
(1985) 159 CLR 550
Procedural fairness as a common law implication in statutory decision-making.
Project Blue Sky Inc v Australian Broadcasting Authority
(1998) 194 CLR 355
Whether breach of a statutory requirement invalidates the resulting act.
Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh
(1995) 183 CLR 273
Legitimate expectation, and the effect of an unincorporated treaty.
How the subject is assessed
Problem questions here give you a statute and a decision and ask which grounds are available. Essays tend to ask whether a doctrine is coherent. The exam is usually open book and rewards a fast, accurate route through the provision.
Using CaseSharp for Administrative
Problem questions
Identify the ground, then the authority that defines it, then apply it to the provision in front of you. Every citation opens the judgment at the paragraph the point came from.
Case notes
Administrative Law case notes usually turn on a single paragraph of reasoning. Briefs link each element back to the paragraph so you can quote precisely.
AGLC4 essays
You will cite Commonwealth and state legislation, delegated legislation and cases in the same footnote block. Full form, short form and pinpoints come out ready to paste.
Exam scaffolds
One scaffold per ground of review, with the leading authority and the test. Check the citing cases across it before the paper.
CaseSharp is a research and study tool. It does not write your problem question answer or your research essay. Every substantive output carries a human-review notice, and where there is no authority to support an answer, Sharp says so instead of inventing a case to fill the gap.
Try it on a Administrative question
Create a free account and run a Administrative query like the one below, so you can see what comes back before you decide anything.
procedural fairness Kioa v West
73,000 audited Australian decisions, current to the end of April 2026.