Dr Conor Casey
麻豆视频
Biography
Conor is a Senior Lecturer in Public Law & Legal Theory and Director of Postgraduate Research at the School of Law. In 2025, Conor will be a visiting scholar at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
Conor鈥檚 research specialises in administrative law, constitutional law, and legal theory. His current research interests include studying the influence of government lawyers on law and policymaking, the influence of natural law theory in public law thought and practice, and the relationship between the political executive and permanent civil service.
He is currently writing a monograph for Hart's Studies in Constitutional Law series titled "Government Lawyers in the United Kingdom: Between Law and Politics."
He was previously a Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Conor completed an LLB at Trinity College, Dublin, an LLM at Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin. Conor is a non-practising barrister, having been called to the Irish Bar in 2020.
Conor is a Senior Fellow at the think-tank Policy Exchange, working with the Judicial Power Project on issues related to humans rights law, the rule of law, constitutional balance, and the separation of powers.
Conor is an editor and co-founder of the legal theory/natural law blog The New Digest offers a forum for short essays on law, politics, political theology, post liberalism, and the common good.
In October 2023 Conor was appointed co-editor of the Dublin University Law Journal, one of Ireland's leading peer-reviewed law journals.
Conor's work has been of relevance to courts, practitioners, and policymakers in several legal systems.
Conor's work has been cited on several occasions by the Attorney General for England and Wales, including before the House of Commons Justice Committee and House of Lords Constitution Committee. His work has also been cited by the Lord Chancellor, the Shadow Attorney General, and the House of Commons Library.
Conor has provided evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee to provide expert written and oral evidence on their inquiries into potential reform of the Law Officers and on potential changes to the appointment and removal of senior civil service. Conor's evidence was extensively cited by the House of Lords Constitution Committee in their final reports. His work on government lawyers was also cited by the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of the Tynwald, in the Isle of Man.
Conor's work on the scope and limits of the executive power in the Irish Constitution been extensively cited by all levels of the Irish Superior Courts - three times by the Supreme Court, twice by the Court of Appeal, and three times by the High Court.
Conor has provided expert advice on constitutional issues to the Irish Government鈥檚 independent Housing Commission, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying, and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing.
In 2021, Conor co-authored an Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission externally funded report analysing the Irish State鈥檚 response to the COVID-19 crisis from a human rights and rule of law perspective. This report has been adopted by the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission and its main recommendations were adopted by the Oireachtas Justice Committee in its final report on the Government鈥檚 COVID-19 response.
Conor's work has been cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Conor regularly comments on legal matters in public forums. He has written for the Critic, the Spectator, Conservative Home, the Daily Express, the Conversation, Irish Times, Journal.ie, and the Washington Post.
Areas of specialism
Affiliations and memberships
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
Mr Jonathan Cockfield M.A. (Oxon.), M.A. (Cantab.) - Human nature, virtues and viewpoints in natural law jurisprudence (2024-)
Publications
This essay is a contribution to a symposium on Professor Sean Coyle's new book "Natural Law and Modern Society" (Oxford University Press, 2024). In this essay, I will try and zoom in on parts of Coyle鈥檚 treatise-chapters X and XI-that are relevant to questions about the judicial role and, in particular, legal interpretation. More specifically, I want to connect Coyle鈥檚 work to my own area of focus in constitutional theory, and to debates about how best to adapt classical natural law thought to questions of constitutional adjudication and interpretation. I anticipate that my comments will testify to the sheer richness of Coyle's work as, although his book does not directly engage with long-standing debates in constitutional theory, his arguments on the nature and point of law nonetheless holds important insights for them.
Conway v An Bord Plean谩la [2024] IESC 34 involved a technical issue of planning law of considerable practical importance but which did not involve any fundamental aspect of the scheme of planning controls. Nevertheless, it raised several important constitutional issues, some of which had received little prior judicial consideration. The Court鈥檚 entrenchment of the NECI approach to Article 15.2 may ensure that an area of constitutional law that has generated excessive litigation may begin to quieten down. The Court鈥檚 interpretation of Article 28A confirms the limited practical import of that provision 鈥 in terms of constraining legislative power 鈥 notwithstanding the symbolically important recognition given to local government. Of most interest, however, is the insight we can glean from Conway about the interpretative assumptions on the current Court and their implications for future constitutional development.
This essay offers a reflection on Professor Joel Alicea's 2024 Harvard Law School Vaughan Lecture - "The Natural Law Moment in Constitutional Theory". My reflection builds on Professor Alicea鈥檚 insights by probing the following question: what can scholars of this current natural law moment learn from past moments?聽For: the current transatlantic revival of interest in the classical natural law tradition is merely one amongst several that have taken place within the last century. But the fact we are speaking of a current moment means that these past moments eventually faltered or fell away, leaving the classical natural law tradition鈥檚 influence on public law thinking subdued. What sparked these previous revivals? What achievements did they enjoy? Why did they fall away? What does their ultimate fate say about the prospects of the current moment?聽These are big questions, and so here I will only try to venture some very tentative thoughts by engaging with two past natural law moments from the mid-twentieth century, in the United States and Ireland respectively.聽
Professor Frank Michelman is one of the most respected legal scholars working in the Rawlsian liberal tradition. Through his many articles and books, Michelman has connected constitutional law and legal theory with Professor John Rawls鈥 enormously influential corpus of work on justice and political liberalism. Constitutional Essentials (Oxford University Press, 2022) represents the culmination of this intellectual effort and is a work that is sure to become a core point of reference for those interested in what a constitutional order inspired by Rawlsian liberal theory might look like.Part I of this review essay provides an outline of Constitutional Essentials' core arguments. This includes Michelman鈥檚 reconstruction of Rawls鈥 thought on constitutional law and his adaptation of these ideas to more specific perennial questions of constitutional theory. This part should, I hope, highlight that Constitutional Essentials represents a careful and impressive feat of scholarship, one driven by sound normative aspirations.Part II of this review argues that, notwithstanding its scholarly merits, Constitutional Essentials will 鈥 and for good reason - struggle to convince many readers that it can offer a compelling guide to, or frame for, structuring constitutional law and political life. Part II. A argues that Michelman鈥檚 project is unconvincing due to its excessive utopianism, and the serious lack of traction it has in the political practices of existing liberal democratic orders. Part II. B then outlines why those working within the classical natural law tradition 鈥 my own intellectual tradition - might reasonably reject the picture of political life offered in Constitutional Essentials, for reasons in addition to its utopianism. Here I suggest that the main reason why Constitutional Essentials is unacceptable to natural lawyers is because it seeks to unreasonably restrict public deliberation and political action on those questions where it is most important to be correct, including what helps to promote human flourishing and what is destructive of it.
We are grateful to Maria Cahill, Laura Cahillane, Saoirse Enright, David Kenny, and Rachael Walsh for their engagement with our Dublin University Law Journal Foreword, "The Constitution Under the New Supreme Court". Their responses substantiate the claim that the Supreme Court鈥檚 output over the past decade marks a significant point in the development of constitutional law that warrants detailed scholarly attention. Kenny, Cahillane, and Enright in their Afterwords explicitly periodise the Court鈥檚 constitutional case law. An era from the 1960s to the 1980s 鈥 frequently associated with Henchy and Walsh JJ 鈥 leading to a period of retrenchment in the 2000s is now replaced with something different: in Kenny鈥檚 characterisation, 鈥榓 modest amount of constitutional innovation and intervention that does suggest the Court is much more active than it was previously鈥. In this Rejoinder we group our comments under two headings. First, we respond to how the commentators have engaged with our account of doctrine-building on the Court. Second, we offer our thoughts on a new theme that emerged in several of the Afterwords: the question of the appropriate audience for the Court鈥檚 judgments and the extent to which the Court should write with that audience in mind.
In this article we argue that the story of Star Wars has much to tell us about perennial questions of constitutional design. The series offers a rich cinematic exploration of some of the most pressing real-life issues of politics and constitutionalism and is, we suggest, a fruitful source of insight for issues of constitutional design and regulation. This article proceeds in three parts. In Part I, we sketch the political context which grounds our analysis, outlining the key constitutional institutions of the Galactic Republic, and their rapid decline and fall as documented across the prequel trilogy. In Part II, we outline the existing contributions commentators have made in respect of Star Wars and its lessons for constitutional design and regulation-the problem with the concentration of government power in one person and the risks posed to political systems by excessive delegation of authority to the executive branch. We then introduce three more nuanced lessons that we think the films offer: the 'Publius paradox'; the hollowness of legalism; and the dangers of confusion at the apex of power. In Part III, with detailed analysis of the films, we show how the Star Wars saga clearly illustrates these lessons: that a constitutionally weak executive, rather than a strong one, can be a cause of democratic decay and autocracy, as it proves incapable of meeting the demands of governance; that commitment to and obsession with law is not per se any bulwark against autocracy; and that unclear lines of constitutional authority pose a huge risk at times of strain and crisis. We argue that the constitutional problem Star Wars illustrates is more subtle and more important than the dominant accounts suggest: that under concentration of power creates the risk of overconcentration of power. If we fear the decay of democracy into autocracy and wish to respond to it, we must be careful not to excessively limit or diffuse power. If we do, and begin to see constitutionalism as solely or primarily a means of restraining government, we may limit government so much that we cause the very problem we seek to prevent.
Political constitutionalism is a major area of inquiry in contemporary constitutional discourse. A significant and increasingly central aspect of political constitutionalism is pre-enactment political review: laws being reviewed for constitutionality or rights compliance by parliament or the executive. This institution is said to be a good augmentation of, or even replacement for, the institution of judicial review, and it is said to bring with it a host of normative benefits. In this article, we wish to highlight an under-explored dark side to pre-enactment review. By undertaking a comparative analysis of functional pre-enactment review in several similar jurisdictions-Canada, New Zealand, and the UK-we contrast these systems, and the ordinary failings they display, with the much deeper problems of pre-enactment review in Ireland and Japan. These latter jurisdictions, we argue, not only fail to instantiate the benefits of pre-enactment review but in fact show that, in the right circumstances, pre-enactment review can have negative effects that are antithetical to the goals and values of political constitutionalism. We call this phenomenon "shadow constitutional review," and suggest that it adds a layer of complexity and nuance to contemporary discussions of political constitutionalism.
罢丑别蝉别&苍产蝉辫;迟飞别苍迟测-蹿颈惫别&苍产蝉辫;肠补蝉别蝉,&苍产蝉辫;诲谤补飞苍&苍产蝉辫;蹿谤辞尘&苍产蝉辫;补肠谤辞蝉蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;测别补谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;颈苍&苍产蝉辫;飞丑颈肠丑&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;贬耻尘补苍&苍产蝉辫;搁颈驳丑迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;础肠迟&苍产蝉辫;丑补蝉&苍产蝉辫;产别别苍&苍产蝉辫;颈苍&苍产蝉辫;蹿辞谤肠别,&苍产蝉辫;丑别濒辫&苍产蝉辫;别虫辫濒补颈苍&苍产蝉辫;飞丑测&苍产蝉辫;尘补苍测&苍产蝉辫;箩耻谤颈蝉迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;丑补惫别&苍产蝉辫;濒辞苍驳&苍产蝉辫;补谤驳耻别诲&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础肠迟&苍产蝉辫;耻苍蝉别迟迟濒别蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;鲍碍鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蝉迟颈迟耻迟颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;诲颈蝉迟辞谤迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;颈迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;驳辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟.&苍产蝉辫;罢丑颈蝉&苍产蝉辫;辫补辫别谤&苍产蝉辫;补颈尘蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;别苍谤颈肠丑&苍产蝉辫;蹿耻迟耻谤别&苍产蝉辫;辫耻产濒颈肠&苍产蝉辫;诲别濒颈产别谤补迟颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;补产辞耻迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;尘别谤颈迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;1998&苍产蝉辫;础肠迟&苍产蝉辫;鈥&苍产蝉辫;补产辞耻迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;肠补蝉别&苍产蝉辫;蹿辞谤&苍产蝉辫;颈迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;补尘别苍诲尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;辞谤&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫别补濒&苍产蝉辫;鈥&苍产蝉辫;产测&苍产蝉辫;颈尘辫谤辞惫颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;辫耻产濒颈肠&苍产蝉辫;耻苍诲别谤蝉迟补苍诲颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;补产辞耻迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;颈尘辫补肠迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础肠迟&苍产蝉辫;丑补蝉&苍产蝉辫;丑补诲&苍产蝉辫;颈苍&苍产蝉辫;辞耻谤&苍产蝉辫;肠辞耻谤迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;迟丑耻蝉,&苍产蝉辫;产测&苍产蝉辫;别虫迟别苍蝉颈辞苍,&苍产蝉辫;辞苍&苍产蝉辫;驳辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;笔补谤濒颈补尘别苍迟.&苍产蝉辫;滨苍&苍产蝉辫;迟丑颈苍办颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;补产辞耻迟&苍产蝉辫;丑耻尘补苍&苍产蝉辫;谤颈驳丑迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞&苍产蝉辫;谤别蹿辞谤尘,&苍产蝉辫;辫补谤濒颈补尘别苍迟补谤颈补苍蝉,&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞测别谤蝉,&苍产蝉辫;肠颈惫颈濒&苍产蝉辫;蝉别谤惫补苍迟蝉,&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;尘别尘产别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;辫耻产濒颈肠&苍产蝉辫;蝉丑辞耻濒诲&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蝉颈诲别谤&苍产蝉辫;丑辞飞&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础肠迟&苍产蝉辫;丑补蝉&苍产蝉辫;辞辫别谤补迟别诲&苍产蝉辫;颈苍&苍产蝉辫;辫谤补肠迟颈肠别,&苍产蝉辫;补&苍产蝉辫;辫谤辞肠别蝉蝉&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;谤别蹿濒别肠迟颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;飞丑颈肠丑&苍产蝉辫;飞颈濒濒&苍产蝉辫;产别&苍产蝉辫;驳谤别补迟濒测&苍产蝉辫;补颈诲别诲&苍产蝉辫;产测&苍产蝉辫;肠濒辞蝉别&苍产蝉辫;别苍驳补驳别尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;迟飞别苍迟测-蹿颈惫别&苍产蝉辫;肠补蝉别蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑颈蝉&苍产蝉辫;辫补辫别谤&苍产蝉辫;辫谤辞蹿颈濒别蝉.&苍产蝉辫;
罢丑颈蝉&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫辞谤迟&苍产蝉辫;肠谤颈迟颈辩耻别蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;苍别飞&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲补苍肠别&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;骋辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞测别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;谤别肠别苍迟濒测&苍产蝉辫;辫耻产濒颈蝉丑别诲&苍产蝉辫;产测&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础迟迟辞谤苍别测&苍产蝉辫;骋别苍别谤补濒.罢丑别&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫辞谤迟&苍产蝉辫;补谤驳耻别蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别蝉&苍产蝉辫;飞颈濒濒&苍产蝉辫;濒颈办别濒测&苍产蝉辫;驳颈惫别&苍产蝉辫;驳辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞测别谤蝉,&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;别蝉辫别肠颈补濒濒测&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础迟迟辞谤苍别测&苍产蝉辫;骋别苍别谤补濒&苍产蝉辫;丑颈尘蝉别濒蹿,&苍产蝉辫;尘辞谤别&苍产蝉辫;辫辞飞别谤&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;颈苍蹿濒耻别苍肠别&苍产蝉辫;辞惫别谤&苍产蝉辫;辫辞濒颈肠测尘补办颈苍驳,&苍产蝉辫;补迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;别虫辫别苍蝉别&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;尘颈苍颈蝉迟别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;补肠肠辞耻苍迟补产濒别&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;笔补谤濒颈补尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;(补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;辫别辞辫濒别).&苍产蝉辫;罢丑别&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别蝉&苍产蝉辫;补濒蝉辞&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫谤别蝉别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;补苍&苍产蝉辫;别虫辫补苍蝉颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础迟迟辞谤苍别测&苍产蝉辫;骋别苍别谤补濒鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;谤辞濒别&苍产蝉辫;惫颈蝉-脿-惫颈蝉&苍产蝉辫;骋辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;笔补谤濒颈补尘别苍迟,&苍产蝉辫;补苍&苍产蝉辫;别虫辫补苍蝉颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;颈苍&苍产蝉辫;迟别苍蝉颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蝉迟颈迟耻迟颈辞苍补濒&苍产蝉辫;蹿耻苍诲补尘别苍迟补濒蝉.&苍产蝉辫;贵颈苍补濒濒测,&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;苍别飞&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;迟谤别补迟尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;颈苍迟别谤苍补迟颈辞苍补濒&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫谤别蝉别苍迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;补苍&苍产蝉辫;别虫迟谤补辞谤诲颈苍补谤测&苍产蝉辫;肠丑补苍驳别&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;蝉别迟迟濒别诲&苍产蝉辫;濒别驳补濒-肠辞苍蝉迟颈迟耻迟颈辞苍补濒&苍产蝉辫;辫辞蝉颈迟颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;补产辞耻迟&苍产蝉辫;颈苍迟别谤苍补迟颈辞苍补濒&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;颈迟蝉&苍产蝉辫;谤别濒补迟颈辞苍蝉丑颈辫&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;惭颈苍颈蝉迟别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;笔补谤濒颈补尘别苍迟.狈辞迟飞颈迟丑蝉迟补苍诲颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别蝉,&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫辞谤迟&苍产蝉辫;补谤驳耻别蝉&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;惭颈苍颈蝉迟别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;蝉丑辞耻濒诲&苍产蝉辫;蹿别别濒&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蹿颈诲别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;颈迟&苍产蝉辫;颈蝉&苍产蝉辫;别苍迟颈谤别濒测&苍产蝉辫;濒别驳颈迟颈尘补迟别&苍产蝉辫;蹿辞谤&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别尘&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;辫谤辞肠别别诲&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;补&苍产蝉辫;辫辞濒颈肠测&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;丑补蝉&苍产蝉辫;补&苍产蝉辫;迟别苍补产濒别&苍产蝉辫;濒别驳补濒&苍产蝉辫;补谤驳耻尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;耻苍诲别谤辫颈苍苍颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;颈迟,&苍产蝉辫;别惫别苍&苍产蝉辫;颈蹿&苍产蝉辫;驳辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞测别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;础迟迟辞谤苍别测&苍产蝉辫;骋别苍别谤补濒&苍产蝉辫;诲别别尘&苍产蝉辫;颈迟&苍产蝉辫;颈苍补辫辫谤辞辫谤颈补迟别&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;诲辞&苍产蝉辫;蝉辞.&苍产蝉辫;惭颈苍颈蝉迟别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;补谤别&苍产蝉辫;蹿谤别别&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;谤别箩别肠迟&苍产蝉辫;蝉耻驳驳别蝉迟颈辞苍蝉&苍产蝉辫;蹿谤辞尘&苍产蝉辫;驳辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;濒补飞测别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;补产辞耻迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;补辫辫谤辞辫谤颈补迟别苍别蝉蝉&苍产蝉辫;辞谤&苍产蝉辫;辞迟丑别谤飞颈蝉别&苍产蝉辫;辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;辫谤辞肠别别诲颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;补&苍产蝉辫;辫辞濒颈肠测&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;补&苍产蝉辫;迟别苍补产濒别&苍产蝉辫;濒别驳补濒&苍产蝉辫;产补蝉颈蝉.&苍产蝉辫;惭辞谤别辞惫别谤,&苍产蝉辫;颈迟&苍产蝉辫;颈蝉&苍产蝉辫;颈尘辫辞谤迟补苍迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;惭颈苍颈蝉迟别谤蝉&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;辫补谤濒颈补尘别苍迟补谤颈补苍蝉&苍产蝉辫;耻苍诲别谤蝉迟补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;迟丑补迟&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别蝉别&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别蝉&苍产蝉辫;肠补苍苍辞迟&苍产蝉辫;飞辞谤办&苍产蝉辫;补&苍产蝉辫;辫别谤尘补苍别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;肠丑补苍驳别&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;辞耻谤&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蝉迟颈迟耻迟颈辞苍补濒&苍产蝉辫;补谤谤补苍驳别尘别苍迟蝉,&苍产蝉辫;别惫别苍&苍产蝉辫;颈蹿&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别测&苍产蝉辫;肠补耻蝉别&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蹿耻蝉颈辞苍&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;苍别别诲濒别蝉蝉濒测&苍产蝉辫;产濒辞肠办&苍产蝉辫;辫辞濒颈肠颈别蝉&苍产蝉辫;颈苍&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;蝉丑辞谤迟&苍产蝉辫;迟别谤尘.&苍产蝉辫;滨迟&苍产蝉辫;谤别尘补颈苍蝉&苍产蝉辫;辞辫别苍&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别&苍产蝉辫;肠耻谤谤别苍迟,&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;补苍测&苍产蝉辫;蹿耻迟耻谤别&苍产蝉辫;驳辞惫别谤苍尘别苍迟,&苍产蝉辫;迟辞&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫别补濒&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别蝉别&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别蝉&苍产蝉辫;补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;谤别辫濒补肠别&苍产蝉辫;迟丑别尘&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;驳耻颈诲别濒颈苍别蝉&苍产蝉辫;尘辞谤别&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蝉颈蝉迟别苍迟&苍产蝉辫;飞颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;肠辞苍蝉迟颈迟耻迟颈辞苍补濒&苍产蝉辫;蹿耻苍诲补尘别苍迟补濒蝉.
The judgment of the Irish Supreme Court in N谩isiunta Leictreacht v. Labour Court [2021] IESC 36 (鈥淣ECI鈥) represents the most significant treatment of Article 15.2.1 in decades and offers a definitive recasting of the doctrinal test for assessing the constitutionality of delegated rulemaking authority. The previous test - the Cityview test - at least as formally articulated in judicial doctrine and understood by legal scholars, is definitively dead and buried. In this paper, I will give an account of what has replaced it and whether it is for better or worse.Part I introduces NECI and gives an account of the Supreme Court judgments of MacMenamin and Charelton JJ. Part II outlines its doctrinal significance. Part III defends the judgment from two anticipated lines of critique. Namely, that the judgment is in tension with our scheme of separation of powers, or that it raises democratic concerns.
Drawing on the natural law tradition and arguments developed in his extensive work on administrative and constitutional law, in a series of recent essays the prominent public law scholar Adrian Vermeule has argued the time has come for legal conservatives in the United States to set originalism aside. In its stead, Vermeule argues conservatives should approach constitutional interpretation in an openly morally infused way and open to using state power to promote the common good - an approach to constitutionalism Vermeule dubs 鈥榗ommon-good constitutionalism鈥. Vermeule鈥檚 proposal immediately sparked extensive and heated responses across both conservative and liberal legal circles. This essay is the first to offer a sustained scholarly analysis of this burgeoning debate. I have two main objectives: one explanatory, one critical. The first objective is to offer a clearer account and appreciation of what proponents of common-good constitutionalism are advocating for. This is necessary as I suggest that, unfortunately, many preliminary critiques of the concept have been awash with analytical imprecision and overstatement. I therefore wish to clarify the core terms and concepts pertinent to Vermeule鈥檚 brief essay: by digging deeper into the political context from which the call to adopt common good constitutionalism emerged, before outlining its core operative principles and their broader intellectual underpinning. My second aim is to critically analyse Vermeule鈥檚 arguments by addressing the initial wave of criticism hostile to the proposal. Contrary to these critiques, I suggest Vermeule鈥檚 proposal is entirely consistent with the natural law legal tradition and emphatically not an argument for authoritarianism unbound from legal and democratic constraint or concern for human rights. I conclude critiques starting from the premise common good constitutionalism is effectively a form of anti-constitutional authoritarianism are not only inaccurate, but deeply unhelpful to fruitful engagement over the core questions Vermeule鈥檚 arguments raise for public lawyers.
The most dominant issue in the Irish public law landscape over the last several years has been the COVID-19 pandemic. This period saw very significant empowerment of the political executive through broad delegations of statutory authority. This happened concurrently with somewhat anaemic oversight from the Oireachtas whose committees鈥攄ue to dubious legal advice that they could not sit remotely鈥攄eclined to operate for several months. This period also saw the superior courts deal with several major separation of powers cases. While the proximate cause of some of these cases was government action taken to address the fallout from COVID-19, their overall constitutional impact will outlast the pandemic. This note offers a survey of these cases
In this article, it is argued that the experience of the Covid crisis in Ireland provides a prime example both of the importance of the administrative state in promoting the common good, and of why its vast powers must be carefully channelled. We identify the moderate but important rule of law failures that beset Ireland's successful and largely benign crisis response. We make the case that rule of law principles applied to executive action and regulation of this sort鈥攁n internal morality of administrative law鈥攃an constrain the administrative state's scope for arbitrariness while also improving its efficacy and perceived legitimacy. We suggest that they can also help to reconcile two critical aspects of public law, thought and practice: the standing need for an empowered and energetic state, and the need for all public power to be reasoned and purposive.
In this article, we use discussion of unwritten constitutional principles in Canadian public law as a window through which to introduce interested jurists to ongoing debate over the revival of the classical legal tradition in the form of common good constitutionalism. We argue that debates over unwritten constitutional principles cannot be resolved without some recourse to the philosophical or theoretical concept of a constitution: what it is, what it does, what it is for, and whom it is for. The answers to these questions are essential for any discussion of unwritten constitutional principles. We then argue that common good constitutionalism can offer a compelling framework for understanding the purpose of constitutionalism and how to instantiate its core operative principles such as the separation of powers, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and judicial independence. However, we also stress that common good constitutionalism is emphatically a theoretical and conceptual framework and not a laundry list of positions on contested questions of institutional design. Part of its attraction will be that it gives a sound and shared principled ground -- a yardstick -- for mediating and settling such disagreements.
This essay offers a comment on Professor Rosalind Dixon's forthcoming book 'Democracy and Dysfunction: Towards a Responsive Theory of Judicial Review'.Professor Dixon鈥檚 work is a masterclass in comparative constitutional law scholarship. It is nuanced in its methodology, rich in contextual qualitative analysis, and deeply learned. In a Neo-Elyian spirit it aims to offer general guidance for courts as they seek to construe a democratic constitution and other relevant legal materials to make judicial determinations that counter risks of anti-democratic monopoly power and democratic blind spots and burdens of inertia, and calibrate the scope and intensity of constitutional doctrines accordingly.Professor Dixon notes that successfully implementing the core tenets of comparative political process theory demands a particular judicial temperament and disposition of prudence when assessing whether political branch action represents a threat to the democratic core.In this essay, I offer two examples drawn from long-running constitutional debates to highlight the wisdom of Professor Dixon鈥檚 emphasis on judicial caution and humility. I focus on debates concerning legislative delegation of broad statutory authority to the executive and the appropriate level of political executive control over bureaucracies.Both examples implicate concerns about institutional checks and balances and the risks of institutional monopolization of power important to Professor Dixon鈥檚 minimum core. I argue these examples highlight the serious risks inherent in judges engaging in an imprudent and blinkered assessment of potential political risks posed to the minimum democratic core, and that such analysis can leave judges blind to other political risks to the common good and democratic responsiveness their actions may exacerbate.
脡amon de Valera was the dominant Irish political figure of the 20th century. His political longevity was unmatched: he was the leading figure of the revolutionary Irish independence movement in the early 1920s, served as head of government for twenty-two years throughout the 1930s-1950s, and as head of state for another fourteen.Despite many articles and books written documenting his life, political career, and impact on Irish life, there has been much less work devoted more squarely to assessing his political and constitutional thought. This is perhaps surprising given that de Valera was a central protagonist in the most important Irish constitutional controversies of the 20th century 鈥 including the 1918 declaration of independence, the Anglo-Irish Treaty debates and Civil War, the transformation of the Free State into a republic, and the drafting and enactment of the 1937 Irish Constitution 鈥 just to name a few.This essay contributes to filling this gap by offering a constructive account of de Valera鈥檚 thought about perennial issues of constitutional law and theory: including the appropriate role of political authority, what limits should be on State power, the source of authority for governmental power, what the best form of government is, and in what circumstances political violence is justified. I build this account through study of his extensive body of articles, broadcasts, public speeches, letters, and memorandums.De Valera may have begun his career in academia, but he never outlined his political beliefs in a scholarly fashion, by painting a comprehensive portrait of his first principles political and constitutional thinking. He was a statesman and highly skilled political animal whose speeches and essays were often directed toward live political controversies, with the aim of eliciting a desired response from his audience. Doubtless the push and pull of political opportunism and calculation might have led him, in his public pronouncements, to modulate his genuine all-things-considered thoughts or feelings on a particular issue. This is why I am offering a constructive account of his political-constitutional thinking; one that puts some coherence and order on his thought on constitutional issues as expressed over the years 鈥 reconciling apparent inconsistencies where possible while distilling some of its more key and consistent features.Part I of this essay provides a concise biography of de Valera that outlines the defining aspects of his long and storied political career. Part II provides an account of de Valera鈥檚 thought on several core questions in constitutional theory. Part III concludes.
In many constitutional systems, political executives increasingly enjoy the balance of control and power over the capacity of the administrative state apparatus, through deploying an array of legal and political tools to centralize and politicize its work, to better align it with their ideology and political objectives. This article critically analyzes this trend through a comparative and theoretical public law lens. I have two objectives, one explanatory, the other critical. I first offer a descriptive account of the diverse tools鈥 political executives 鈥 presidents, prime ministers, cabinets etc. - deploy to facilitate greater control over bureaucracies. I also probe the possible incentives which seem to be driving their use and the desire for greater control. After offering this account, I switch gears to the critical, by offering a normative analysis of executive attempts to leverage greater control over the administrative state.
This essay offers an account of the diverse range of rich insights Professor Finnis鈥檚 work offers for several perennial questions of constitutional theory: such as what valuable moral ends constitutional law serves, how best to approach the design of constitutional arrangements and institutions, and how to best approach constitutional interpretation. I proceed in four parts. The first two parts begin by looking at Finnis鈥檚 treatment of the purpose of law as a social practice and then, more specifically, the point or purpose of channeling political power through constitutional law. Having outlined the point or purpose of constitutional law and constitutional institutions, I then probe what Finnis has to say about questions of constitutional design. Finally, I give an account of how Finnis鈥檚 work approaches constitutional interpretation.
The growth in the power of the executive branch of government has been accompanied by a related growth-heretofore unexplored in the literature on comparative constitutional law-of the role and importance of executive legal advisors. These influential but often secretive advisors can be the first-and sometimes the only-group to review the actions of the executive or legislative proposals before enactment, for compliance with the constitution. In this article, we compare this practice in four similar but somewhat distinct jurisdictions-the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and Ireland-to assess its impact on constitutionalism and the executive power. We conclude that the practice of constitutional review by executive lawyers is highly variable, changing between places and over time along four key axes that can either empower or constrain the executive to varying degrees. It can restrain executive action by holding it within constitutional boundaries; it can bolster the executive power by giving legalistic credibility to its actions while providing little restraint in practice; or it can create policy distortion by overly tightly binding executive and legislative action. Constitutional advice from executive legal advisors, then, does not operate as an exogenous constraint on executive power, but can be structured and manipulated by the executive to have various different effects. As such, we argue that this institution requires much more attention from both comparative constitutional lawyers and constitutional designers to map its effects on the constitutional order and to see what structures, processes, and cultural factors might shape it. Finally, we argue for increased transparency in the provision of executive constitutional advice, as without this, even understanding its effects is extremely difficult.
This essay takes stock of the debate over common good constitutionalism and the revival of the classical legal tradition. In doing so, we suggest that several of the most common critiques of that revival are based on serious misconceptions and question-begging claims, especially for the superiority of originalism. Our hope is to clear away these myths so that actual engagement may occur. We hope to inaugurate a new phase of discussion, one in which critics of the classical legal tradition begin with a baseline comprehension of what it is they are criticizing. In a sense, despite all the sturm und drang, the real debate over common good constitutionalism has yet to begin. Part I sketches the largely ersatz debate so far. Part II introduces the essentials of the classical theory of law and of common good constitutionalism, which is nothing more than the core precepts of the classic legal tradition translated, adapted and applied to current constitutional debates. We do not purport to provide a comprehensive statement of the classical theory, but merely offer an introductory mini-primer, with references to more comprehensive literature. As we will see, the myths we will discuss beg even the elementary questions. Part III explains how the myths are incorrect鈥攐r, more precisely, beg the questions in controversy. In the conclusion, we invite genuine engagement with the classical legal tradition.
Damache v Minister for Justice concerned a constitutional challenge to section 19 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. This section outlined the statutory process the executive branch, acting through the Minister for Justice, had to follow before revoking a certificate of naturalisation. The appellant successfully argued this process was an unconstitutional breach of fair procedures. The judgement will be of interest both to Irish and other public lawyers for its treatment of fair procedures, which the Supreme Court approached in a regrettably blinkered way - seeing only one constitutional principle when several others were at stake. The judgment is a stark reminder for both Irish and comparative lawyers of the fact that the concrete demands of fair procedures must be balanced with a range of competing institutional goods and principles equally important to constitutional democracies: from administrative efficiency to structural principles stemming from the separation of powers.
The United Kingdom鈥檚 decision to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union triggered serious ripples across its constitutional order, including repeat clashes between Parliament and the Government. This friction reached a crescendo in 2018, following the former鈥檚 unprecedented decision to hold the latter in contempt for refusing to obey its request to publish the Attorney General鈥檚 full legal advice on the Government鈥檚 draft Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. One of the many interesting constitutional issues thrown into sharp focus by this event, was the important relationship between executive power and the legal advice-giving role of executive lawyers. Using the UK and Ireland as illustrative examples, this essay considers how the work of executive lawyers interacts with executive authority. I argue that their legal advice can be important in supporting the executive鈥檚 political narratives about the basis for controversial policy action or inaction and is deployed by the executive to enhance its perceived legal credibility and political legitimacy. Its relationship to exercises of public power deserves greater positive and normative scrutiny, both in each system and from a comparative public law perspective more broadly.
Political constitutionalism understood in terms of autonomy of political judgement rather than allocation of powers 鈥 Irish case studies as example 鈥 Judicial doctrines recognise political discretion concerning rights 鈥 However, legalism or legal constitutionalism arises within the sphere of political judgement itself 鈥 Legal constitutionalism restricts political autonomy epistemically as well as institutionally
Discusses the extent to which executive control of the legislative process (executive dominance) was a feature of the Irish Parliamentary system between 2016 and 2019. Reviews key constitutional features of executive dominance, its operation in the "money messages" procedure of Ireland's 2016 minority government, the methods of opposing legislation, including Attorney General's advice, and the reasons for executive dominance's resilience.
This article makes the case for greater parliamentary involvement over assessments of the compliance of policy proposals with constitutional commitments. It proceeds in four parts. Part I outlines the strongest normative justifications for parliamentary involvement in pre-enactment constitutional review in theoretical ideal-type accounts offered by scholars. Part II outlines the Irish constitutional review process. It traces the predominant role played by the executive and judiciary, and how Parliament is largely excluded from any substantive participation. Part III provides a comparative account of how several other common-law parliamentary systems implement parliamentary engagement with rights issues. Part IV distils the various factors considered in Part III by way of guiding potential institutional reforms aimed at facilitating a more pronounced role for Parliament over constitutional review. It is tentatively suggested that the recent innovation of pre-legislative scrutiny-if accompanied by several additional initiatives-may serve as a good basis for commencing any conversation concerning reform. These amendments include reforming the extremely secretive and opaque process of executive branch legal review, and promoting greater parliamentary capacity to contest and scrutinise executive determinations through the creation of a non-partisan, specialised and well-resourced constitutional law committee. However, Part V concludes on a note of caution and highlights the barriers which may hamper attempts at cultivating greater parliamentary involvement over constitutional review, notwithstanding any reforms.
鈥淭hough a dwelling house is property and often indeed the most valuable piece of property an individual citizen possesses, it would be quite wrong to equate it with other forms of property such as money or money鈥檚 worth [鈥 The free and secure occupation of it is a value very deeply embedded in human kind and this free and secure occupation of a dwelling house, apart from being a physical necessity, is a necessity for the human dignity and development of the individual and the family鈥: per Hardiman J. in The People (DPP) v Barnes. The words of Hardiman J. elegantly express the profound relationship between the secure occupation of a dwelling and basic human needs, both physical and mental. In this piece, we shall consider the extent to which a right to shelter currently exists in Irish law. It has been extensively noted that there is no explicit constitutional or statutory right to shelter or housing in Irish law, save for the State鈥檚 duty to children under the Child Care Act 1991 (the 鈥1991 Act鈥) and Art.42.5鈥攏ow Art.42A鈥攐f the Constitution. However, in this article we explore whether a right to shelter may be feasibly secured or implied through the protection offered by other constitutional provisions or through the jurisprudence of the European Convention on Human Rights (鈥淓CHR鈥). In Part I we shall consider whether a right to shelter can be secured through the Constitution of Ireland, by examining a number of rights, namely the right to bodily integrity, the constitutional right of the person to protection, the constitutional property right a tenant may have in a lease, and the State鈥檚 constitutional duty toward children. Our analysis suggests that there are a number of ways in which the Constitution could afford extensive protection to such a right. In Part II, we examine whether a right to shelter may be grounded in the jurisprudence of the European Convention on Human Rights through the obligations placed on state organs through the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 (the 鈥淓CHR Act 2003鈥). The recent work of the Constitutional Convention, and the majority vote of confidence by its members for the recognition of an explicit enumeration of socio-economic rights in the Constitution, once again raise controversial and contentious issues concerning the proper role of the courts in the democratic order and their legitimacy and capacity to grapple with such questions. We hope to demonstrate that although those in favour of vindicating a right to shelter through the Constitution will invariably continue to pursue an explicit enumeration of that right through amendment, the current jurisprudence in the area suggests that there may be other, albeit more subdued, means of vindicating a right to shelter.
There is evidently uncertainty in the Superior Courts concerning the interactio between the Immigration Act 2004 (the "2004 Act") and the executive pow of the State to operate and regulate residency permission schemes for non-Ir nationals. This article will explore the Superior Courts' treatment of ss.4 an of the 2004 Act, contrasting the approach of the High Court with that of t Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court has not yet definitively ruled on t interaction between ss.4 and 5 of the Immigration Act 2004 and Ministeri discretion, there have been hints in both Bode v Minister for Justice 1 an Sulaimon v Minister for Justice? that these sections do not delimit the ext of that discretion. It is argued below that these cases suggest that the Supre Court has adopted the premise that the Minister for Justice has inherent po to consider and determine an application for residency that is independent any statutory scheme. In contrast, it appears that the High Court, as exemplifi in the recent case of Hussein v Minister for Justice ,3 has taken the view t the arrangements governing entitlement to remain within the State derive fro ss.4 and 5 of the Immigration Act 2004, and thus limit the Minister's discret to refuse residency permission to non-nationals.
Foreword by Sir Robert Buckland KBE QC MP: The Law Officers of the Crown are sometimes described as the submarines of Government, working below the radar and surfacing only when there is a significant issue to be addressed. I agree with this characterisation, but I also think that lively discussion and debate about their role is beneficial, which is why this discussion paper by Conor Casey and John Larkin QC is so welcome. Policy Exchange are once again to be commended for making sure that the debate about constitutional affairs is not entirely one-way. Such a lack of debate led to the flawed Constitutional Reform Act 2005, for example. A lack of balance is also evident in recent criticism of the Attorney General鈥檚 announcement that she is considering referring a point of law to the Court of Appeal in the wake of the Colston statue trial. Attacking this announcement as disgraceful political gamesmanship or even institutional racism, as some have, is clearly misconceived. However, it does usefully reveal the difficulty that some people have in thinking about the Attorney General鈥檚 role, which this timely paper helps correct. David Mallet, in his 1740 鈥淟ife of Francis Bacon鈥, memorably described the offices of Attorney and Solicitor General as 鈥渞ocks upon which many aspiring lawyers have made shipwreck of their virtue and human nature.鈥 JP Collier wrote in 1819 that 鈥渙f all the offices in the gift of the Crown, that of Attorney General is perhaps the least to be coveted for鈥 the person filling that place can scarcely avoid being the object of general dislike鈥. There is no doubt that both the Law Officers of England and Wales endure some tough moments, but their constitutional value endures, despite change and evolution when it comes to their detailed functions. Having been a Law Officer myself for just short of five years, I can testify to the benefits of Law Officers being in the House of Commons, having to be directly accountable for the organisations they superintend and having the sort of direct political influence that appointed officials simply cannot possess. One aspect of the work of the Law Officers that has not really changed is their involvement in some litigation, either conducting it directly in the Court of Appeal or other senior courts, or advising and being consulted on the course of major litigation where the Government is a party. It is implicit that, in a case involving the Government, its very own submissions reveal its view as to the merits of a case. To make explicit what is implicit by expressing an opinion about a case after its conclusion is not, and cannot be, objectionable. What would be clearly objectionable, however, would be a refusal by the Government to abide by the judgment, which would demonstrate not mere disrespect for the court but complete disregard for the rule of law. Equally objectionable would be personalised comments and attacks on the integrity of judges, who are in no position to answer back. To suggest, however, that Law Officers should be wholly prevented from either disagreeing with or making positive comment about completed cases is to take things much too far. Further, it should be entirely expected for a Law Officer to support the Government鈥檚 policy on judicial review or other types of legal or constitutional reform, whilst maintaining scrupulous professional objectivity when conducting individual cases and determining the public interest. The Law Officers are not Ministers who have responsibility for the development of policy, but the making by them of measured contributions to legal debate should not be prohibited. Delivering such views in a legal conference seems to me to be a proper setting too. Although a recent Attorney made a speech at a Party Conference, I would hope and expect that very much to remain an exception, rather than become a rule. Casey and Larkin鈥檚 conclusions are the right ones. Law Officers and Ministers should feel confident about making measured and reasonable points without being subject to a barrage of unreasonable criticism that could stifle debate. I firmly believe that the Law Officer model used in England and Wales has worked, and will continue to work, well, and that those who serve in these offices will respect their constitutional boundaries whilst not having to maintain a sphinx-like silence!
The House of Lords Constitution Committee is currently investigating the role of the Law Officers. The Committee have outlined several questions that frame its inquiry, including whether it is 鈥渁ppropriate or helpful for the Law Officers, as Government legal advisers, to be politicians serving in Government?鈥 The inquiry may be the most thorough examination of the Law Officers since the period 2007-2009, during Prime Minister Gordon Brown鈥檚 campaign for constitutional reform. It was clear at that time some in the then Labour Government were open for reform, with Prime Minister Brown announcing to the House of Commons that the office of Attorney General 鈥渘eeds to change鈥. Around the same time, the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee and House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution both issued reports concerning potential reform, with the former advocating significant change. The Commons Committee recommended reform along the lines that responsibility for providing legal advice to government and superintending the prosecution services should be vested in a statutorily independent career lawyer and not a politician or member of the Government. In the end, however, Government and Parliament did not proceed with significant reform. While some recommendations made by the House of Commons Committee were received positively by the Labour Government (even if not acted upon in the end), its most consequential proposals were rejected. Although the then Government initially appeared enthusiastic about the prospect of reform, in the end they definitively rowed back from the idea. The recommendations of the current House of Lords Constitution Committee 鈥 whose members include a former Supreme Court president, Lord Chancellor, and Solicitor General 鈥 will no doubt spark renewed debate on the Attorney General and its proper role in the constitutional order. The United Kingdom currently faces a daunting set of challenges, including navigating the complex socio-economic problems and opportunities facing Britain post-Brexit, the ongoing fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, rising food and energy costs, political deadlock in the Northern Irish Assembly, potentially significant legislative reform of human rights protection, and the possibility of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom, to name just a few. These issues will raise countless thorny legal and constitutional issues, about which the Prime Minister and his Cabinet will invariably turn to the Attorney General for legal advice and guidance. The Office plays a critical role in the constitutional order and questions concerning its reform should therefore be subject to serious debate and reflection. This report aims to contribute to ongoing debates by arguing that the Labour Government under Gordon Brown acted wisely by rejecting significant constitutional reform, and that current political actors should follow suit. As such, I offer a defence of the institutional status quo of the Law Officers. I suggest that the current configuration of the Attorney General (and Solicitor General), as a law officer with legal and political dimensions, works well. I also argue that the costs of moving to an alternative model of Attorney General could be steep and not worth incurring given the overall robust health of the contemporary Office. However, my defence is qualified in that I suggest several moderate reforms would be prudent to ensure proper balance is maintained between the political and legal dimensions of the office, so that the former does not compromise the latter. I proceed in five parts. Part I offers an overview of the Attorney General鈥檚 Office and its diverse set of functions and responsibilities. This part provides an account of the dual legal-political nature of the office that I defend. Part II outlines the strongest critiques of the office and why calls for reform arise intermittently. Part III offers a defence of the office and argues that successive Attorneys General have, for the most part, maintained appropriate balance when simultaneously carrying out their role as legal advisor and guardian of the public interest and rule of law on the one hand, and their position as a member of government on the other. I also argue that when appropriately balanced, the political and legal elements of the Attorney General are complementary to each other. Part IV analyses several different constitutional systems to probe the potential political risks of alternative models of apex legal advisors. I suggest in light of the overall robust health of the office that such risks are not worth incurring. Part V outlines a slight qualification to my defence, which is that several reforms would be prudent responses to some legitimate concerns raised in part III and would help solidify appropriate balance between the dual dimensions of the Attorney General鈥檚 Office. A brief conclusion follows.
Perhaps the most significant power Irish courts enjoy is that they have the final and supreme say over what the Constitution means and requires, obliging the other branches to listen and obey. Irish judges determine the scope and substance of fundamental constitutional rights, and review legislation and executive action to see if it is consistent with them.Given the Constitution is our fundamental law and structures and channels political power, how it is interpretated can have enormous repercussions for politics. It is a judicial function that consequently deserves careful and considered scrutiny. In this spirit, this article gives a critical account of the current state of play of how judges interpret constitutional rights.Part I offers a brisk sketch of the development of our constitutional rights jurisprudence. Part II focuses on the emergence of the so-called 鈥榙erived rights doctrine鈥 in the last decade and how it is similar or different to significant prior jurisprudential trends. Part III probes whether this development is a welcome one or not.
Irish constitutional scholarship has, over the past 10 years, increasingly adopted comparative, historical, and theoretical perspectives. Constitutionalism outside the courts 鈥 most obviously, constitutional amendments and their related deliberative processes but also the novel constitutional issues raised by the minority Government of 2016-2020 鈥 has been a particular focus. The same period, however, saw a radical change in court structure, far greater than that which occurred in 1961 and arguably as great as that which occurred in 1937. The establishment of the Court of Appeal has created a new Supreme Court, controlling what cases it hears and 鈥 with the abolition of the one-judgment rule for all but Article 26 references 鈥 having greater space for the development of constitutional analysis. Perhaps enabled by these institutional changes, the past decade has seen significant doctrinal development across the full range of constitutional law, unparalleled in the Court鈥檚 history. Yet we do not experience ourselves as living through a moment of great constitutional change, such as frequently identified with the early 1960s or late 1990s / early 2000s. How can we explain the apparent paradox of significant doctrinal development that does not significantly alter the substance of constitutional law?In this Foreword, we review the constitutional jurisprudence of the Court over the past decade to attempt to capture the current zeitgeist of Irish constitutional law. We find that the Court has marginally expanded constitutional rights protection, removed impediments to the Government and Oireachtas working as joint actors in constitutional governance, and widened the scope for judicial scrutiny of legislative and executive action. While far from negligible, these doctrinal developments are modest compared to previous moments of change in the Supreme Court. The stability in the substance of constitutional law belies 鈥 although perhaps stems from 鈥 greater attention to questions of constitutional methodology. The Court鈥檚 jurisprudence has been driven by a lawyerly concern with text, intent, and structure. Viewed from this perspective, the paradox dissolves: the purpose of the Court鈥檚 jurisprudence has been to establish more soundly based doctrinal frameworks for results not so different from those that might have been reached in earlier decades.There is broad agreement in the Court that the purpose, or object, of constitutional interpretation is to give effect to the will of the People, as expressed through the Constitution. The starting point for analysis is a close parsing of constitutional text, although it is recognised that regard must also be had to context to construct or discern the intent of the People. Differences emerge, however, between judges and across cases over not only the balance to be struck between text and context but also the sort of context that can be appropriately considered and emphasised in constructing that intent. If there is a divide on the current Supreme Court, it is between treating the Constitution as a higher law 鈥 mandating consideration of a relatively narrow range of contextual factors 鈥 and treating the Constitution as a great Charter 鈥 broadening the context that informs constitutional meaning. The future development of constitutional law depends largely on which view of the Constitution will predominate.We proceed as follows. Part 鈥2 outlines the fundamental rights jurisprudence of the Court over the past decade, including its treatment of the right to person, derived rights, equality, standards of review, criminal procedure rights, family and children鈥檚 rights, and the inviolability of the dwelling. Part 鈥3 discusses the Court鈥檚 treatment of separation of powers, including legislative, executive and judicial power, sovereignty, and constitutional remedies. Part 4 identifies broad trends in the Court鈥檚 jurisprudence and attempts to capture some elements of the current zeitgeist of Irish constitutional law. Part 鈥5 concludes.