JUDICIAL REVIEW NOT AVAILABLE IN RESPECT OF AN INTRA VIRES ERROR OF LAW

Gillies Ramsay Diamond v P J W Enterprises Ltd [2004] BLR 131

In Gillies Ramsay Diamond v P J W Enterprises Ltd [2004] BLR 131 the Inner House of the Court of Session confirmed that judicial review is not available as a remedy in Scotland in respect of an adjudicator’s intra vires error of law. It was held that the extension of judicial review to intra vires errors of law would subvert the purpose of the adjudication scheme as set up by Parliament. However, there may be other grounds on which the decision of an adjudicator may be susceptible to judicial review. Two were mentioned by the Inner House in the present case, namely a failure by the adjudicator to take relevant material into account and the unintelligibility of the reasons given by the adjudicator in support of his decision. Although both of these claims failed on the facts (and the court set rather high thresholds for the invocation of these grounds of review) their existence may be invoked in subsequent case law.