Professor Joanna Bell

Governing Body Fellow

Joanna is an Associate Professor, Jeffrey Hackney Fellow and Tutor in Law at St Edmund Hall. She teaches Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and Tort for the college, as well as Environmental Law for the Faculty.

Prior to taking up the post of Associate Professor, Jeffrey Hackney Fellow and Tutor in Law, Joanna spent a number of years as a College Associate Lecturer at St John’s College, University of Cambridge and Affiliated Lecturer at the Cambridge Law Faculty. In earlier years, she was a student at the University of Oxford. Joanna graduated from the BA in Law from Keble College sharing the Wronker Prize for best overall performance in FHS examinations. She then read for the BCL (obtaining a distinction) and the DPhil in Administrative Law. During her time at Oxford Joanna also held a series of lecturerships, including a stipendiary post at Lady Margaret Hall.

Joanna’s primary research area is doctrinal administrative law. She is also interested in the overlaps between administrative law doctrine and related fields such as Planning Law, Environmental Law and Tort.

Joanna has written on an array of topics within the area including legitimate expectations, reason-giving, tribunals, review of statutory construction and standing. In 2020 she will publish a monograph entitled The Anatomy of Administrative Law which explores the legal structures which are in play in adjudication. Joanna’s research has been cited in the UK Supreme Court a number of times. (See Dover DC v  CPRE Kent [2017] UKSC 79Finucane’s Application for Judicial Review  [2019] UKSC 7Privacy International v Investigatory Powers Tribunal [2019] UKSC 22).

  • JR Bell, ‘Common Law Constitutional Rights & Judicial Review of Executive Action’ in Mark Elliott& Kirsty Hughes (ed), Common Law Constitutional Rights (Hart 2020) (forthcoming)
  • JR Bell, The Anatomy of Administrative Law (Hart 2020) (forthcoming)
  • JR Bell, ‘Administrative Blunders and Judicial Review: Analysing the UKSC Decision in Gallaher v Competition & Markets Authority’ (2019) Administrative Law Blog
  • JR Bell, ‘Dover DC v CPRE Kent: Legal Complexity and Reason-Giving in Planning Law’ (2019) UK Constitutional Law Blog
  • JR Bell, ‘Reason-Giving in Administrative Law: Where Are We and Why Have the Courts Not Embraced the General Common Law Duty to Give Reasons?’ (2019) MLR
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  • JR Bell, ‘Rethinking the Story of Cart v Upper Tribunal & Its Implications for Administrative Law’ (2019) OJLS 74
  • JR Bell, ‘Systematically Studying Review of Reason-Giving’ (2019) I.CONnect Blog
  • JR Bell, ‘Dover DC v CPRE Kent: Legal Complexity and Reason-Giving in Planning Law’ (2018) JR 25 [Case Note]
  • JR Bell, ‘Framing Questions about Ouster Clauses’ (2018) Administrative Law Blog
  • JR Bell, ‘Reflections on Open Justice and the Status of the General Common Law Duty to Give Reasons’ (2018) CLJ 240 [Case Note]
  • JR Bell, ‘The Relationship between Judicial Review and the Upper Tribunal: What Have the Courts Made of Cart?’ (2018) PL 394
  • JR Bell, ‘The Supreme Court’s Approach to the Finality Clause in Lee v Ashers’ (2018) UK Constitutional Law Blog
  • JR Bell, ‘A Long Neglected Case with Some Important Lessons About Standing’ (2017) Administrative Law BlogJR Bell, ‘ClientEarth (No 2): A Case of Three Legal Dimensions’ (2017) JEL 343
  • JR Bell, ‘Kent and Oakley: Revisiting the Common Law Duty to Give Reasons for Grants of Planning Permission & Beyond’ (2017) JR 105
  • JR Bell, ‘The Doctrine of Legitimate Expectations: Power-Constraining or Right-Conferring Legal Standard?’ (2016) PL 437
  • JR Bell, ‘The Privy Council and the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectations Meet Again’ (2016) CLJ 449 [Case Note]

Where next?

Writing the History of Neoliberalism

15 Jan 2019

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Law Fellow wins Inner Temple New Author's Book Prize 2022

30 Nov 2022

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