Meanings
- not comparablelawIn judicial reviews of administrative decisions: being unreasonable to the extent that no reasonable person or authority would make such a decision.
Origin
From Wednesbury + unreasonable. Wednesbury refers to the case of Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v Wednesbury Corporation, in which the Court of Appeal of England and Wales refused to quash a decision by the Wednesbury Corporation to ban children under 15 from entering cinemas on Sundays, and laid down in what cases courts could quash unreasonable administrative decisions.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Wednesbury unreasonable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wednesbury%20unreasonable
“Wednesbury unreasonable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wednesbury%20unreasonable. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Wednesbury unreasonable,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wednesbury%20unreasonable.
Source: Wednesbury unreasonable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.