ESSEX University researchers are to look at how much the UK’s judges should be able to intervene in the way the government works.
They will work with the Public Law Project on a £223,400 study on how much judicial reviews should be able to hold the government to account.
The courts can hold a judicial review into any decision by a government body, including councils, which is claimed to be unlawful or has violated someone’s rights.
Recently, former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott called for a review into the Metropolitan Police’s handling of allegations of phone hacking by tabloid journalists.
From March, the researchers will spend two years looking at whether reviews give judges too much power, whether it wastes public money or whether they are vital to hold government to account.
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