Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)

The Tribunals , Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (‘the TCEA 2007’) radically transformed the structure of the tribunal system , so as to bring disparate tribunals and appeals against their decisions within a unified structure.

The Upper Tribunal has three different roles. It may be a tribunal of first instance. Second and ‘probably most important’ there is a right of appeal on any point of law arising from a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (other than an excluded decision). Third , it may exercise a statutory jurisdiction which is the equivalent of the judicial review jurisdiction of the High Court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland. Lady Hale described this as ‘a major innovation in the 2007 Act’.

In this paper we consider the circumstances in which a judicial review claim may or must be transferred to the Upper Tribunal , current practice (with particular reference to age assessment claims and fresh asylum claims) , and possible developments in the future.

Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal