The court identified when the Administrative Court is entitled to depart from a previous decision of co-ordinate jurisdiction; concluding that as a matter of judicial comity it should follow the decision unless convinced that it is wrong. In judicial review the principle of stare decisis required that, although not bound to do so, the court would follow a decision of a judge of equal jurisdiction unless the decision appeared to be clearly wrong. As for the divisional court, Goff LJ said that it would only be ‘in rare cases that a divisional court will think it fit to depart from a decision of another divisional court exercising this jurisdiction’.
Judges:
Goff LJ, McCullough and Mann JJ
Citations:
[1985] 1 QB 67, [1984] 3 All ER 240, [1984] 3 WLR 643
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Judicial Review, Litigation Practice
Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.554411