Category: Irish constitutional law

Repeal the 8th Amendment: Debate at TCD

Last night I made my way back to Dublin for the evening, to participate in a debate organised jointly by the TCD Law Society and TCD Student’s Union on the legal implications of repeal of the 8th amendment (i.e. the provision of the Irish Constitution by which unborn life and the lives of pregnant women are deemed equal). The debate was a little unusual inasmuch as (a) it didn’t have a proposition per se, but was rather framed as a topic, and (b) it was undertaken in good spirit and rigour, and nobody seemed to lose his or her temper.

In as much as there was a proposition side (which we might vaguely describe as a side in favour of repeal of the 8th amendment and confident that the legal consequences would not lead to some form of disaster) it comprised of myself and Máiréad Enright (University of Kent). Máiréad and I have written together on the issue of Irish abortion law before, and we were also both in the group that drafted and published the Access to Abortion Bill last year. The opposition side (opposed to repeal of the 8th Amendment and to the legalisation of abortion in Ireland) comprised William Binchy and Gerry Whyte, both of Trinity Law School (Binchy is now emeritus there), and William Binchy is also legal advisor to the Pro Life Campaign. I don’t know if there was an exact head count taken, but I would imagine there was over 200 people in attendance and the debate went on for close to two hours.

It was also made available on Periscope, so you can look and listen to it here. The University Times and Trinity News carry reports of the debate here and here.

The Labour Party #repealthe8th Proposals: An Analysis

This is cross-posted from Human Rights in Ireland

Today the Labour Party became the second party to outline its plans for repeal of the 8th amendment and the possible legislation that would follow constitutional change (the first was the Green Party, whose proposals I analysed here). The proposals seem to have temporarily disappeared from the Labour page, but the Heads are uploaded here.

I must start this post by saying that, together with nine others (Mairead Enright, Vicky Convway, Mary Donnelly, Ruth Fletcher, Natalie McDonnell, Claire Murray, Sheelagh McGuinness, and Sorcha uí Chonnachtaigh) I was involved as an independent expert in the Labour Women Commission on Repeal of the 8th Amendment. This Commission comprised a political group, a medical group, and a legal group. Our job, as the legal group, was to propose a piece of law that might act as a “model” for post-amendment legislating, listening to the views of the medical experts and feeding into the political decision-making processes of the political group. Continue reading “The Labour Party #repealthe8th Proposals: An Analysis”

Zappone & Gilligan v Revenue Commissioners: a feminist re-writing


Over recent years, Máiréad Enright, Aoife O’Donoghue and Julie McCandless have been leading the excellent Northern/Ireland Feminist Judgments Project. This takes the core idea of feminist judging from the original project of Rosemary Hunter, Clare McGlynn and Erika Rackley and applies it, with particular variations, to Ireland and Irish cases. Enright, O’Donoghue and McCandless have led the development of a close and intellectually challenging community of feminist scholars from, in and interested in Ireland, developed an excellent website, and edited what promises to be an excellent book bringing feminist judgments, commentaries and critical perspectives together. My contribution to that book was to attempt a feminist rewriting of Zappone & Gilligan v Revenue Commissioners & Ors. Continue reading “Zappone & Gilligan v Revenue Commissioners: a feminist re-writing”

New chapter: In Defence of Judicial Innovation and Constitutional Evolution


Last September I spoke at a conference in Dublin City University entitled ‘Judges, Politics and the Irish Constitution‘. The conference brought together dozens of lawyers and political scientists from and in Ireland with an interest in the dynamics of constitutional interpretation, collaboration, evolution, politics and law. The organisers of that conference-Laura Cahillane (of UL), and Tom Hickey and James Gallen (both of DCU)–have now brought a number of the papers presented at the conference together into an edited collection. The book, also entitled Judges, Politics and the Irish Constitution–will be published next year by Manchester University Press. Continue reading “New chapter: In Defence of Judicial Innovation and Constitutional Evolution”