L Rahman Law School | Lecture on Administrative Law l Law |Natural Justice

For centuries before Cooper, English lawyers had been using 'natural justice' as a technical term for the procedural duties owed by a court, or by an administrative body that makes decisions that are somewhat similar to those of a court ('quasi-judiciar decisions).' When you are deciding whether to pull down someone's house, it is unjust to act as if he or she had nothing to say on the matter.

Since Cooper was putting up the building, and the Board's decision was based on Cooper's failure to give notice, Cooper might have had new information relevant to the decision. He might have been able to show that it was only by accident (or due to the fault of a third party) that his notice hadn't reached the Board. Or, if he really had not given notice, he might be able to tell the Board something that would be relevant to the discretionary poweLecture on Administrative Law by C.K. Takwanir that it had to exercise (for example that the construction met its standards). It would be unjust for the Board to pull down his house if there were good reason not to, so it is procedurally unjust to do so without knowing all of the information or argument that might show a good reason not to.

It also went against the public interest for which the Board had been set up. The Board was not doing its job of protecting people from dangerous buildings (and not demolishing buildings that are not dangerous) if it pulled down houses on partial or faulty information.
But there is also another reason why it was unjust to pull down Cooper's house without talking to him about it. Even if he had no information to give, tearing down someone's house without telling him ahead of time shows disrespect. Counsel for the Board in Cooper asked (at 186): 'What necessity can there be for giving the party notice, when he well knows that he is doing an illegal act, and that the board have power to prostrate his house? The Court's answer was that the Board owed Cooper the respect that it would have shown him if it had given teethe of the plan—even if that way of proceeding could make no difference to the outcome. The men from the Board of Works came at night. Erie CJ said that there was evidence that they were not on 'amicable' terms with Cooper. The lack of notice and lack of a hearing were in themselves ways of abusing Cooper, by treating him as if he didn't matter.

Lecture on Administrative Law by C.K. Takwani