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''Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v Wednesbury Corporation''
948 Year 948 ( CMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Hamdanid forces under Sayf al-Dawla raid into Asia Minor ...
1 KB 223 is an English law case that sets out the standard of unreasonableness of public-body decisions that would make them liable to be quashed on
judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
, known as ''Wednesbury'' unreasonableness. The court gave three conditions on which it would intervene to correct a bad administrative decision, including on grounds of its unreasonableness in the special sense later articulated in ''
Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service ''Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service'' , or the GCHQ case, is a United Kingdom constitutional law and UK labour law case that held the royal prerogative was subject to judicial review. In 1984, by issuing an Order in ...
'' by
Lord Diplock William John Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock, (8 December 1907 – 14 October 1985) was a British barrister and judge who served as a lord of appeal in ordinary between 1968 and until his death in 1985. Appointed to the English High Court in 1 ...
:


Facts

In 1947 Associated Provincial Picture Houses was granted a licence by the
Wednesbury Wednesbury () is a market town in Sandwell in the county of West Midlands, England. It is located near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire in the Hundred of Offlow, at the 2011 Census the town had a population of 3 ...
Corporation in Staffordshire to operate a
cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...
on condition that no children under 15, whether accompanied by an adult or not, were admitted on Sundays. Under the
Cinematograph Act 1909 The Cinematograph Act 1909 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (9 Edw. VII c. 30). It was the first primary legislation in the UK which specifically regulated the film industry. It unintentionally provided the legal basis for film ...
, cinemas could be open from Mondays to Saturdays but not on Sundays, and under a Regulation, the commanding officer of military forces stationed in a neighbourhood could apply to the licensing authority to open a cinema on Sundays. The Sunday Entertainments Act 1932 legalised opening cinemas on Sundays by the local licensing authorities "subject to such conditions as the authority may think fit to impose" after a majority vote by the
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...
. Associated Provincial Picture Houses sought a declaration that Wednesbury's condition was unacceptable and outside the power of the Corporation to impose.


Judgment

The Court decided that it had no power to issue a writ of ''certiorari'' to quash the decision of the defendant simply because the court disagreed with it. For the Court to adopt any remedies against decisions of public bodies such as Wednesbury Corporation, it would have to find that the decision-maker: # had given undue relevance to facts that in reality lacked the relevance for being considered in the decision-making process. # had not given relevance to facts that were relevant and worthy of being considered in the decision-making process # had made a decision that was completely absurd, a decision so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have possibly made it. The court ruled that the Corporation's conduct was not inappropriate and complied with the standards that had been set out. As Lord Greene MR said (at 229),


Significance

The test laid down in this case, in all three limbs, is known as "the ''Wednesbury'' test". The term "''Wednesbury'' unreasonableness" is used to describe the third limb, of being so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have decided that way. This case or the principle laid down is cited in United Kingdom courts as a reason for courts to be hesitant to interfere with decisions of
administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), ad ...
bodies. In recent times, particularly as a result of the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998, the judiciary have resiled from this strict abstentionist approach, arguing that in certain circumstances it is necessary to undertake a more searching review of administrative decisions. The
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...
requires the reviewing court to subject the original decision to "anxious scrutiny" as to whether an administrative measure infringes a Convention right. In order to justify such an intrusion, the Respondents have to show that they pursued a "pressing social need" and that the means employed to achieve this were proportionate to the limitation of the right. The UK courts have also ruled that an opinion formed by an employer in relation to a contractual matter has to be "reasonable" in the sense in which that expression is used in ''Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation'': see ''The Vainqueur José'' (1979) 1 LlLR 557 and ''Braganza v BP Shipping Limited'' 015UKSC 17.


See also

*Compare:
patently unreasonable In Canadian law, patently unreasonable or the ''patent unreasonableness test'' was a standard of review used by a court when performing judicial review of administrative decisions. It was the highest of three standards of review: correctne ...
,
fairness Fairness or being fair can refer to: * Justice * The character in the award-nominated musical comedy '' A Theory of Justice: The Musical.'' * Equity (law), a legal principle allowing for the use of discretion and fairness when applying justice ...
,
fundamental justice In Canadian and New Zealand law, fundamental justice is the fairness underlying the administration of justice and its operation. The principles of fundamental justice are specific legal principles that command "significant societal consensus" as ...
and due process. *In the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, a similarly dominant case is '' Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council'', , which describes the level of deference accorded to final legislative rulemaking made by federal agencies with the authority to do so. The legal standard most comparable to Wednesbury unreasonableness is the "
arbitrary and capricious In law, the standard of review is the amount of deference given by one court (or some other appellate tribunal) in reviewing a decision of a lower court or tribunal. A low standard of review means that the decision under review will be varied or o ...
" standard applied to most regulatory decisions undertaken without trial-type procedures (those rendered after trial-type procedures must be "supported by substantial evidence"). *'' Re Smith & Fawcett''
942 Year 942 ( CMXLII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – The Hungarians invade Al-Andalus (modern Spain) and besiege the fortress ...
Ch 304, a company law case dealing with the control of discretion * ''Wednesbury'' unreasonableness in Singapore


Notes

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External links


Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v. Wednesbury Corporation
1947 in England United Kingdom administrative case law Common law rules Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases 1947 in case law Legal tests 1947 in British law United Kingdom constitutional case law