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United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Key definition
Judicial review definition What does Judicial review mean? Judicial review is the court process used to challenge the lawfulness of decisions, actions or omissions of public bodies (such as ministers, local authorities, regulators and tribunals), rather than to reconsider the merits. It is a supervisory jurisdiction developed mainly through case law, with procedural rules set by legislation and court rules. Across the UK and Ireland, typical grounds include illegality (error of law, acting beyond powers), irrationality/unreasonableness, procedural unfairness (including breach of natural justice and legitimate expectation), and, where engaged, proportionality under the European Convention on Human Rights. Common remedies are quashing, prohibiting and mandatory orders, declarations and injunctions; damages...
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Planning and environmental public law challenges in England and Wales: judicial and statutory review, EIA/SEA/Habitats grounds, procedure, costs protection and OEP review
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LexisNexis Environment expert
Practice notes
First drafted in collaboration with Alistair Mills of Landmark Chambers and later revised by Freya Foster of Henderson Chambers.
The different routes of challenge
Most environmental safeguards and regulatory functions are carried out by public authorities, including the Environment Agency, Natural England, Defra, the Secretary of State for Transport, and local authorities. Ensuring those institutions are accountable, and scrutinising their decisions, actions and failures to act, is consequently fundamental to environmental law. Although there is a range of courts and tribunals in which to seek review and appeal decisions—for instance, the General Regulatory Chamber dealing with certain environmental appeals, the Information Tribunal addressing matters concerning environmental information, and the High Court considering appeals by case stated—two particularly significant pathways are Judicial review and statutory review. In England and Wales, both routes require issuing proceedings as claims in the Administrative Court, a specialist court within the Kings Bench Division of the High Court. The choice between judicial review and a statutory challenge turns on the nature of the decision taken and the legal framework or basis underpinning it...
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Web page updated on 21/05/2026
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