Administrative Tribunals by Wraith; HutchessonReview by: Charles D. AblardAdministrative Law Review, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Winter 1975), pp. 110-111Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40709502 .

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1 IO ADMINISTRATIVE LAW REVIEW

Administrative Tribunals. By Wraith and Hutchesson, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., Ruskin House, Museum Street, London. £5.75 (1973). Reviewed by Charles D. Ablard.*

So little has been published on the complex system of administrative tribunals in Great Britain that comparative studies with the American administrative process have suffered as a result of the consequent scarcity of materials. This new book sponsored by the Royal Institute of Public Administration has remedied this lack of materials to a remarkable degree. Written by R. E. Wraith, senior Research Officer of the Institute, and Peter Hutchesson, a New Zealand lawyer, the effort was aided by an eminently qualified consultant, Alistair Mac- donald, who was, until recently, the secretary of the Council on Tribu- nals, the nearest British counterpart to the Administrative Conference of the U.S.

While books abound in England on constitutional and administra- tive law, and the two are generally so merged, little has been written about the actual operation of the multitude of administrative tribu- nals ranging in scope from those dealing with supplementary benefits and commons commissioners to the more traditional ones on industrial disputes and immigration tribunals. This book supplements the ex- cellent comparative study of administrative law in Great Britain and the United States by Professors Bernard Schwartz of New York Uni- versity and H.W.R. Wade of Oxford University, Legal Control of Government. That book was the outgrowth of the Ditchley Conference on Administrative Law in 1969 with delegations of prominent scholars, judges and practitioners from England and the United States.

The book begins with the historical development of tribunals from Tudor times through the Beveridge Report in pre-World War I Great Britain, which led to the first health services program, to a survey of the many existing tribunals, including the new one for Value Added Tax. It reviews their functions, organization, structure and member- ship, as well as the roles of Parliament and the Council on Tribunals in exercising oversight over tribunals. The role of the Lord Chancellor in the process of appointment of tribunal members is discussed. The function of the public inquiry, a related but separate subject of ano- ther book co-authored by Mr. Wraith, Public Inquiries as an Instru- ment of Government, is briefly analyzed.

•Presently Visiting Fellow, Center of International Studies, Cambridge Univer- sity; former Council Member, Section of Administrative Law.

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BOOK REVIEWS 111

The book ends with a survey of projected developments in the future presenting a range of possible directions which have been commented on in past years including the consolidation of tribunals which are concerned with the same general areas of public policy. An appendix treats judicial review of administrative actions and a bibliog- raphy lists general works on administrative law as well as specific works on the individual tribunals discussed in the text.

The book suffers only from telling a bit more than the average American scholar or lawyer may want to know about tribunals in its 376 pages. The plethora of tribunals and the lack of any uniform pro- cedure makes for many distinctions and variations, which are well-de- scribed by the authors. For the reader interested in an in-depth analysis of the work of administrative tribunals in Great Britain this is the only volume of its kind.

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