W4 - legitimate expectation

The only circumstance in which a procedural legitimate expectation can arise is where a public body promised or represented that a particular procedure would be followed.

In order to form a legitimate expectation, a promise, policy or practice must be expressed or configured clearly. What amounts to clarity is an objective test and will be determined by the courts in the context of the given case.

In the case of Rashid, although the court found that the Home Office had committed numerous errors which led to unfairness, it also found that Rashid’s expectation was not legitimate because initially, he had no knowledge of the policy that he retrospectively sought to rely upon.

The courts have determined that public authorities will always be required to fulfil procedural legitimate expectations.

Recent developments in case law demonstrate that for the ground of legitimate expectation, the courts are increasingly moving towards a proportionality in assessing whether a public authority has lawfully frustrated a legitimate expectation.

In Nadarajah and Abdi Laws LJ confirmed that proportionality is now an independent, stand-alone ground of domestic judicial review.