''West v Secretary of State for Scotland'' 1992 SC 385 (IH), 1992 SLT 636, (also reported as ''West v Scottish Prison Service'', 1992 SCLR 504) is the leading case on

judicial review in Scotland Judicial review in Scotland is a part of United Kingdom constitutional law that functions within the framework of Scots administrative law. The power of judicial review of all actions of governmental and private bodies in Scotland is held by the ...

and sets out in detail the present law. It sets a contrast to the position on

judicial review in English law Judicial review is a part of UK constitutional law that enables people to challenge the exercise of power, usually by a public body. A person who contends that an exercise of power is unlawful may apply to the Administrative Court (a part of the ...

. The petitioner complained that on being moved from his employment at one prison to another, he had been told that his moving expenses would be paid, but that they were not. The respondent said that the terms of his employment were that he was to be mobile, and that as a Crown employee his terms of employment were variable at the instance of the crown. Held: Wherever there is an excess or abuse of the power or jurisdiction which has been conferred on a decision-maker, the Court of Session has the power to correct it.

Judgment

The

Court of Session The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

held that does not require that the decision complained should have any

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...

element in order to be reviewable:

… the Court of Session has power, in the exercise of its supervisory jurisdiction, to regulate the process by which decisions are taken by any person or body to whom a jurisdiction, power or authority has been delegated or entrusted by statute, agreement or any other instrument

The public or private nature of the inferior body or tribunal is not decisive, nor is it necessary to enquire whether the decision of the inferior body or tribunal is administrative in character. The essential point is that a decision-making function has been entrusted to that body or tribunal which it can be compelled by the court to perform… The essential feature of all these cases is the conferring, whether by statute or private contract, of a decision-making power or duty on a third party to whom the taking of the decision is entrusted but whose manner of decision-making may be controlled by the court.

'per'' Lord President Hope at page 650, emphasis added Crucially, in

Scots administrative law Scots administrative law governs the rules of administrative law in Scotland, the body of case law, statutes, secondary legislation and articles which provide the framework of procedures for judicial control over government agencies and priva ...

the competency of an application to the supervisory jurisdiction

… does not depend upon any distinction between public law and private law, nor is it confined to those cases which English law has accepted as amenable to judicial review...

Significance

The

law of Scotland Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Irela ...

is different from the

law of England Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

on this matter: see, for England, ''

R v Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain ex parte Wachmann R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars'', or in Irela ...

992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...

1 WLR 1036 in which Simon Brown J held that a decision of the Chief Rabbi to terminate a rabbi's employment was not reviewable: to attract the court's supervisory jurisdiction, there must be ‘not merely a public but ''potentially a governmental interest in the decision-making power in question''.’ t page 1046, emphasis added

Notes

1992 in Scotland Court of Session cases United Kingdom administrative case law 1992 in United Kingdom case law {{UK-gov-stub

Judgment

Significance

See also

Notes