Controlling Administrative Power

This wide-ranging comparative account of the legal regimes for controlling administrative power in England, the USA and Australia argues that differences and similarities between control regimes may be partly explained by the constitutional structures of the systems of government in which they are embedded. It applies social-scientific and historical methods to the comparative study of law and legal systems in a novel and innovative way, and combines accounts of long-term and large-scale patterns of power distribution with detailed analysis of features of administrative law and the administrative justice systems of three jurisdictions. It also proposes a new method of analysing systems of government based on two different models of the distribution of public power (diffusion and concentration), a model which proves more illuminating than traditional separation-of-powers analysis. 'An important and original contribution to administrative law and comparative government in a simple and very clear style.' Susan Rose-Ackerman, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School and Yale Department of Political Science 'Cane's greatest achievement in this book is his demonstration of extraordinary 'fluency' in the subtleties of the English, US and Australian systems of administrative law and governance. He is at his absolute best in comparative legal analysis, informed by a strong sense of the historical development of the administrative state in each country.' Peter L. Lindseth, Olimpiad S. Ioffe Professor of International and Comparative Law and Director, International Programs, School of Law, University of Connecticut1. Introduction: concepts and methodology; 2. The English system of government; 3. The US system of government; 4. The Australian system of government; 5. The development and institutional structure of control regimes; 6. Administrative interpretation; 7. Administrative fact-finding and policy-making; 8. Administrative rule-making; 9. Administrative adjudication; 10. Private law controls; 11. Controlling information; 12. The new public management; 13. Controlling the controllers; 14. Concluding reflections on methodology and themes.