It is a common belief that ‘administrative law’ is a recent development in the Anglo-American tradition. This is mistaken. The Anglo-American tradition is not premised on the existence of a separate set of courts to adjudicate on public law matters, as is common within civilian jurisdictions. To reason from this premise, to the conclusion that there was, until recently, no administrative law is a non s.-zquitur. English law has exercised procedural and substantive controls over the administration for well over 350 years. Three features of this control were of central importance