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Politics and Administrative Justice

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In recent years, failures in health and social care, mental health services, public housing and education have dominated headlines and been the subject of much public debate. The means for addressi...
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  • 10 June 2025
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In recent years, failures in health and social care, mental health services, public housing and education have dominated headlines and been the subject of much public debate. The means for addressing such concerns remain notably legalistic and subject to a particular brand of liberal legalism that stifles the possibility of transformational intervention.

This book argues that there is urgent need for a radical reassessment of the way the law mediates between citizens and the state. Drawing on historical and comparative research, literary, pictorial and cinematic treatments, and the insights of the disability rights movement, Nick O’Brien examines how the everyday regulation of street-level bureaucracy can play an integral part in reimagining postliberal politics and the role of the law.

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Price: $41.95
Pages: 168
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
ISBN: 9781529230598
Format: Paperback
BISACs: LAW / Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice, Administrative law, general, LAW / Disability, LAW / Public, LAW / Government / State, Provincial & Municipal, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civics & Citizenship, Public international law, Social impact of disasters / accidents (natural or man-made), Political structures / systems: democracy, Regulation of public services
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“Nick O’Brien has made a typically thought-provoking contribution to the literature on administrative justice, powerfully arguing that democratic participation should be at the core of official responses to citizen grievances.” Paul Daly, University of Ottawa
Nick O’Brien was Legal Director at the Disability Rights Commission from 2000 to 2007 and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool from 2007 to 2022.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Street-Level Bureaucracy and Response to Citizen Grievance

Chapter 3 The ‘Social Imaginary’ of Liberal Legalism

Chapter 4 The Promise of Postliberalism

Chapter 5 Citizen Grievance and the Spectre of Legalism

Chapter 6 Postliberal Response to Citizen Grievance: The Challenge of Disability Human Rights

Chapter 7 Responding to Grievance: The Mental Health System and Special Educational Needs

Chapter 8 Postliberal Administrative Justice

Chapter 9 Administrative Justice Beyond ‘Administrative Justice’

Bibliography

Index