An analysis of judicial restraint in the doctrine of substantive legitimate expectations in the UK and Hong Kong

• Main Author: CHNG, Wei Yao, Kenny
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Public Law and Legal Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3379
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The substantive legitimate expectations doctrine has become a fixed feature in the judicial review landscape of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Yet judges in other common law jurisdictions have expressed reservations about the doctrine in view of its potential to intrude into the merits of decision-making and elevate individual interests over legitimate administrative objectives. This article will investigate how the judges in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong have addressed such concerns by highlighting the legal control techniques they have used to restrain the application of the doctrine, as well as the factual circumstances that trigger such restraint. It will argue that while analytical ambi- guities exist in the relationship between these factual circumstances and the control techniques they trigger, these ambiguities present further opportunities to shape the doctrine to address the concern of merits review and promote more principled judicial decision-making.