Judicial Review
In Scotland the Court of Session has a supervisory jurisdiction over public authorities, including the AIT, to ensure that they do not exceed the powers granted to them by Parliament, and judicial review is the procedure used to access that jurisdiction. Judicial review is therefore a challenge to the legality of the decision and it has played an important role in relation to the AIT, where the quality of decision-making can be very variable. A successful judicial review will send the case back to the place it was in the system when the mistake was made. It would be unusual for judicial review to result in the status the applicant wants being granted.
Recent legislation has restricted the scope of judicial review in immigration and asylum cases and has replaced it with statutory review. Any asylum appeal decision promulgated by an adjudicator after June 9th 2003 which then goes on to have leave to appeal to the tribunal refused can only be appealed by statutory review. Those promulgated prior to that date can still be judicially reviewed. The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 will restrict the availability of judicial review still further where there has been an appeal to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.

