the principles in the case of Ridge Vs Baldwin

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Administrative law coursework

The case of Ridge versus Baldwin expresses the principles of natural justice. Natural justice has meant many things to many writers, lawyers and systems of law, including an approximate synonym of divine law, and also a form of the ius gentium or the common law of nations. The common lawyers, however, have used the expression “natural justice” with surprising precision of meaning, as referring to two important but narrow principles only, namely audi alteram partem (hear both sides), and nemo judex in causa sua potest (no one can be judge in his own cause).

     

“The phrase ‘natural justice’ is of course used only in a popular sense and must not be taken to mean there is any justice natural among men. Among most savages there is no such thing as justice in the modern sense.”

The common law, moreover, originally applied these principles only in the comparatively narrow context of the decision-making progress of a court of law. Lord Haldane, L.C., said in the famous case of Local Government Board V. Arlidge, “When the duty of deciding an appeal is imposed, those whose duty it is to decide it must act judicially. They must deal with the question referred to them without bias, and they must give each of the parties the opportunity of adequately presenting the case made. The decision must be come to in the spirit and with the sense of responsibility of a tribunal whose duty it is to mete out justice.”

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Later in the development of common law these principles came to be applied also to the decisions of administrative bodies acting judicially whereby the royal courts exercised a supervisory jurisdiction over them, primarily by means of the former prerogative writs. The importance of the application of the principles of natural justice rests not merely on insistence on due compliance with simple or elementary procedural rules, but also on the fact that a decision which has been arrived at in circumstance where the principles of natural justice have not been observed, will be void. As Lord Wright said in General ...

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