The Appeal of Internal Review

Law, Administrative Justice and the (non-) Emergence of Disputes

David Cowan author Simon Halliday author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:7th Oct '03

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Appeal of Internal Review cover

Why do most welfare applicants fail to challenge adverse decisions despite a continuing sense of need? The book addresses this severely under-researched and under-theorised question. Using English homelessness law as their case study,the authors explore why homeless applicants did -- but more often did not -- challenge adverse decisions by seeking internal administrative review. They draw out from their data a list of the barriers to the take up of grievance rights. Further, by combining extensive interview data from aggrieved homeless applicants with ethnographic data about bureaucratic decision-making, they are able to situate these barriers within the dynamics of the citizen-bureaucracy relationship. Additionally, they point to other contexts which inform applicants' decisions about whether to request an internal review. Drawing on a diverse literature -- risk, trust, audit, legal consciousness, and complaints -- the authors lay the foundations for our understanding of the (non-)emergence of administrative disputes.

The quality of the research work...means that a very clear picture of how and why decisions are made is brought out...Anyone who has been heavily involved in making or challenging local authority decisions on homelessness applications should find this book interesting because of the extra layer of insight into the experiences of the people making those applications which it provides. Robert Sutherland SCOLAG Legal Journal, Issue 338 Dec 05 ...this well-conducted study, and the stimulating discussion of the findings, constitutes a valuable addition to our understanding of why systems of administrative justice are or are not used. Maurice Sunkin Public Law June 2004 The researchers..employed a variety of data collection methods, including a period of observation, followed by a period of interviewing unsuccessful homeless applicants, interviews and focus groups with local authority officers, as well as interviews with solicitors and housing advisers. This clearly enabled a rich variety of data to be collected, which is used to maximum effect throughout the book. Interview extracts provide a revealing and often poignant insight into the thinking of homeless applicants and illuminate the institutional response they face... The strength of this book undoubtedly lies in the richness of the data collected, and the thoroughness of its analysis. The book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on administrative justiceand its interest extends well beyond the housing and homelessness sphere. Emma Laurie Modern Law Review January 2005

ISBN: 9781841133836

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 18mm

Weight: unknown

232 pages