Business Competitors, Standing and Judicial Review

The doctrine of standing requires that those seeking to commence of maintain judicial review show a sufficient or special interest in the decision sought to be challenged. This requirement presents little difficulty to individuals, who usually have little difficulty in articulating how a decision will impact their rights or interests. Standing rules allow for degrees of affectation, recognising that most decisions affect more than one person, which means someone other than the person most affected by a decision may have standing to challenge it. The degrees of affectation recognised in standing rules does not apply easily to business interests, particularly when the party claiming standing is a business competitor to another business that is also affected by a decision. This article examines the special position of business competitors in standing rules. It argues that Australian courts have not yet fashioned a coherent approach to the standing of business competitors. The article examines recent English cases which have recognised the standing of public interest groups seeking to challenge many government decisions with a commercial element.