Paths to administrative justice in Wales

This project aims to inform policy in Wales by developing detailed network maps of the Welsh administrative justice system, with a focus on housing and education, using legal analysis and insights from practitioners and users, together with machine learning and visualisation techniques.

People’s life chances are crucially determined by public-body decisions and the laws governing them, but these structures are often difficult to understand by the public and professionals. By capturing experiences and using data analysis and data-visualisation techniques, this project will examine a developing Welsh approach to administrative justice and its capacity to respond to change.

Using traditional legal methods, complemented by visualisation techniques not previously applied to UK administrative law, the research team will critically examine the principles, institutions, structure and accessibility of Welsh administrative justice. Four workshops will be held across Wales, which will draw delegates from the policy, practice and research communities to elicit their views on the practical operation of the administrative justice system and identify areas for improvement and determine where there is a mismatch between law, guidance and professional practice. The team will also use case studies in housing and education to visualise pathways travelled, from an initial public-body decision up to appeal to higher courts, and to examine the structure of the system from the perspective of policy-makers.

The teams’ findings will provide evidence to bodies actively engaged in law and policy reform in Wales and will analyse its findings against trends in good administration and administrative law across other jurisdictions, with the aim of producing guidance with wider applicability.