John Smillie, Judicial Review and New Zealand's Missed Opportunity

Abstract

This paper explores Professor John Smillie’s contribution to administrative law in New Zealand and, specifically, his proposal for the development of judicial review over thirty years ago. The author begins by detailing and examining Smillie’s approach, before continuing on to identify the consequences of New Zealand striking a different path. The paper concludes that, had New Zealand adopted Professor Smillies’s proposal, the judicial review jurisdiction may have avoided some of the problems it currently faces in administrative law.