Migration Law's Continuing Impact on Australian Administrative Law

The relentless nature of the migration case load that comes before the federal courts provides them little opportunity to consider the wider impact of what a focus on that area of law might be having on wider administrative law. The topic of materiality, which is examined by two articles in this issue, is an example. That doctrine arose and was fashioned in the context of migration cases. Any reading of a selection of recent migration cases suggests that the principle of materiality has added another complication to this already complicated area of administrative law. Whether it has added value is another question. For present purposes, the rise of materiality invites an obvious question. Would the doctrine have emerged if the High Court’s administrative decisions were not almost entirely dominated by migration cases?