The need for a just administrative Act to the Namibian Legal System

Abstract

Abstract provided by author

Administrative law is one of the three basic areas of public law dealing with the relationship between government and its citizens. The major purpose of administrative law is to ensure that the activities of government are authorized by Parliament or by provincial legislatures, and that administrative laws are implemented and administered in a fair and reasonable manner.[1] Administrative law is based on the principle that government action, whatever form it takes, must (strictly speaking) be legal, and that citizens who are affected by unlawful acts of government officials must have effective remedies

Hence the essence of this paper. For the activities of government to be fair and reasonable, there is need for an Administrative Justice Act which can provide essentially for Administrative Justice. Currently, there have been reviews on the initiative to enact an Administrative Justice Act in Namibia. The recent one was two years ago in August 2008 . The review is still in progress. Several countries those with both civil and common law jurisdictions have a codified statutes which regulate administrative law. For example South Africa has the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) as well as the Promotion of Access to Information Act which have ushered in the growth of administrative law in the country. In Australia, administrative justice has reached an advanced stage, where it had in addition to its court system, developed an administrative tribunal system since 1975 that reviews a large range of government administrative decisions and the United States of America, whose administrative law system is well founded on the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of 1946. In Namibia we have several Acts which cater for several areas of the Law but none that makes specific provision for issues on Administrative law. As a result of this when courts are confronted with administrative issues, they refer to article 18 and common law

The question then is: is there really a need for an administrative justice Act or Is Article 18 sufficient to cater for administrative justice in Namibia?This paper will thus focus on answering this question and the outline of the paper will be as follows:Chapter one will discuss Article 18 and the two main components of Article 18 which are fairness andreasonableness. Further more this chapter will look at the application of these principles in several Namibian Cases. Chapter two will look at several jurisdictions( South Africa, Canada, Singapore and Australia) which have an administrative Justice Act and the changes this Act has brought to those legal systems. Having discussed various legal systems, Chapter three will look at the shortcomings of administrative justice in Namibia and what could be the possible changes if an Act was to be enacted. Chapter four will then make possible recommendations as to what can be included in the administrative justice Act when it is enacted