Croft v McNamara [1999] VSC 495

"Before Lord Denning's judgments in Schmidt and Breen, the common law rules of natural justice only protected a person's existing rights and interests. They do so, inter alia, by implying a right to be heard before a statutory power was exercised in a manner which might prejudice those rights and interests. The introduction of the concept of legitimate expectation into public law extended the range or protection given by the common law rules of natural justice. Prospective, as well as existing, rights, interests, privileges and benefits are now within the domain of natural justice. Just as the common law has traditionally given a person a right to be heard before the exercise of a statutory power prejudices any of his or her existing rights or interests, so the common law now gives a person the right to be heard before the exercise of a statutory power prejudices some right, interest, privilege or benefit which that person can legitimately expect to obtain or enjoy in the future. The common law right to be heard may, of course, be excluded by statute."