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The Submissions I would read if I were a member of the Citizens Assembly

The Citizens Assembly has announced the 17 groups that have been invited to address the Assembly members at the March meeting. This follows relatively hot on the heels of its selection of 300 ‘random’ submissions to be brought to members’ attention, as well as the (continuing) uploading of the 13,000+ submissions that were sent to the Assembly either online or by post.

The selection of the sample and of groups to present to the Assembly has attracted some criticism, including from me. It would appear that the Assembly has taken an extremely limited approach to the concept of balance, understanding it as meaning one side ‘balancing out’ another, without regard to points of extremity, the fact that contestation is complex, the possibility of multiple points of disagreement along a scale and so on. In addition, the selection of the random sample of 300 submissions was undertaken without even the barest methodological rigour one would expect of, say, an undergraduate student by, for example, determining first the volume of submissions that were ‘template’ or repeat submissions, the broad proportions of submissions calling for repeal or retention, and then sampling from a ‘proper’ sample (with one of each template, for example) in a manner proportionate to the overall submission rates. Furthermore, in inviting people to address the Assembly it would appear that any lawyers who had ever written specifically on the issue of abortion law reform in Ireland were excluded (although not practising lawyers who had acted in abortion law cases), and the submissions of those lawyers (disclosure: this includes me) were not identified as being in any way potentially more useful or more likely to propose solutions than those of anyone else. This is in spite of the fact that at every meeting members of the Assembly have repeatedly asked for solution-oriented/forward-facing and comparative approaches to be presented to them. Continue reading “The Submissions I would read if I were a member of the Citizens Assembly”

Trump’s Immigration Ban: A Legacy of Securitised Immigration Rhetoric?

This week I wrote the Birmingham Perspective, focusing on the Executive Order through which President Trump has attempted to arrest immigration and asylum entry from a number of Muslim-majority states. The text is below. Birmingham Perspectives are timely commentaries from experts within the University of Birmingham relevant to contemporary debates and controversies and intended to bring expert insight and research to bear on these debates.

Borders are profoundly challenging places; places of violence, refuge, opportunity, and risk. For individuals, crossing a border can represent entry into a new political and legal space in which possibility is rich; an escape from persecution, the beginning of a new life, membership of a new polity. However, borders are also of fundamental importance for states. In delineating territory they provide a clear sphere of physical responsibility: for those within those borders, what happens there is the political responsibility of the state, which we rely on to ‘keep us safe’. And so, there is an inescapable tension between the opportunity that borders represent for people, and the risk that they represent for states. Continue reading “Trump’s Immigration Ban: A Legacy of Securitised Immigration Rhetoric?”

Government loses Brexit court case – so what happens now?

On Tuesday I published the following rapid reaction column in The Conversation

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the government does not have the right to trigger Article 50, formally beginning the Brexit process, without an act of parliament.

The court voted eight to three against the government, following an appeal from the High Court late last year.

In essence, the government argued that even though triggering Article 50 would lead to a change in domestic law and fundamentally alter the constitutional arrangements that EU membership had wrought, it should be allowed to trigger it without parliamentary consent. This was, it said, part of the prerogative power of the executive – the matter is merely about membership of an international treaty and organisation (the EU), and that is a prerogative matter. Continue reading “Government loses Brexit court case – so what happens now?”

Submission to the Citizens Assembly on Abortion Law Reform in Ireland

Along with almost 8,000 other individuals and organisations, I made a written submission to the Citizens Assembly considering Article 40.3.3 of the Irish Constitution, which recognises a right to life of “the unborn” and the equal right to life of pregnant women. The Citizens Assembly was established to bring together 99 randomly selected ‘citizens’ under the chairmanship of Ms Justice Laffoy, to consider numerous potential changes to the Irish Constitution, the first of which is ‘the 8th Amendment’. The terms of reference of the Assembly are here. Continue reading “Submission to the Citizens Assembly on Abortion Law Reform in Ireland”