From common law principles to judicial activism: the duty to provide reasoned decisions in administrative law in Malaysia

Historically, the court has a supervisory role in ensuring the public administration exercises good governance. Therefore, the court has given the authority to determine the legality of the administration's decision through a mechanism known as a judicial review. One contentious issue in dealing with ultra vires decisions is whether the authority has to give a reasoned decision, i.e. the requirement to communicate the justification of its decision. The main crux of this duty is to ensure that the decision is not made arbitrarily. Under common law, the duty is subject to exceptional circumstances. Meanwhile, in Malaysian law, several cases demonstrate the imposition of a duty to make reasoned decisions primarily influenced by judicial activism propounded in the R Rama Chandran case rather than principles in the common law. Therefore, this study aims to analyse Malaysian and English administrative laws concerning the duty to make reasoned decisions and how they influence respective governments.