INTRODUCTION

This collection of essays concerns the relationship between judicial and bureaucratic decision-making. It considers the impact of the courts on bureaucracy. Its focus, then, is on a particular aspect of a broader field of enquiry which is often called ‘judicial impact studies’ – the social scientific exploration of the significance of the courts to social change.

The impact of court decisions has to date been the focus of two intellectual traditions, each with its own specific characteristics and perspectives. The first tradition is within political science (largely in the United States), within the law and courts sub-field. The second tradition is somewhat younger and has grown out of (largely Commonwealth and European) socio-legal studies generally and administrative law in particular. Political scientists have been concerned broadly with the significance of courts to social and political change in society. For socio-legal studies/administrative law, the concern has been to test the efficacy of the court's supervision of executive action, or (relatedly) its power to protect the rights of citizens as the subjects of the state. Whereas the political science project has been concerned with social change and the dynamics of power within the polity, the socio-legal/administrative law project has been more specifically focused on testing the widespread assumption within the legal academy and doctrine that law has power over government.