Justification, Transparency And Intelligibility: From Beginning To End

Recent case law has stressed the importance of regulatory tribunals ensuring that their processes be transparent and intelligible, from beginning to end: from the establishment of clear allegations in discipline proceedings to the writing cogent reasons for decisions.

This can be frustrating for tribunals: the writing of clear allegations or the drafting of cogent reasons can be very time consuming, and sometimes very costly. Nevertheless, this is something that must be done to ensure that the regulatory process is seen as reasonable, and is able to withstand scrutiny on appeal or judicial review. 

This article considers two recent cases and suggests some of the things a regulatory tribunal can do to make sure that it is meeting the standards set by the courts.