Thread by @DemocracyTalk

On #StPatricksDay2023 I want to shout out to my compatriots from #Ireland producing some of the most incisive, compelling, and agenda-setting scholarship in global constitutional law today. Read them, follow them, connect with them.

A loooong (but very incomplete) thread 🧵

A few quick starting notes for a global audience.
I often think constitutional law research by Irish scholars is so rich because of our unique context, in a constitutional system that has one foot in colonialism and conflict, and one (today) in the rich Global North.

#Ireland's war of independence, civil war, 1922 Constitution, partition, and 1937 Constitution (still in force) sets our experience apart from the gradualist constitutional development of e.g. #Canada, #Australia, #NewZealand, but has commonalities with other states (e.g. India).

Add in a combination of common law + civil law influences across UK, US and continental European law, with post-colonial culture and state size producing reflexive comparativism, and a long history of experimentation and innovation, and you have a mix unique to the Anglosphere.

Ireland has neither US/German-style court obsession nor UK-style parliamentary sovereignty. Instruments of direct and deliberative democracy are far more common and entrenched than in many Global North democracies, including frequent use of referendums, citizens' assemblies.

Irish constitutional scholars often approach constitutional questions - whether doing theoretical, conceptual, or comparative work - somewhat less constrained by the frames and nostrums of 'core' states in the global constitutional conversation. Ours is a view from the periphery.

A useful background read here (by Irish studies scholars) is a book produced last year for the 1922 centenary, with a whopping 50 essays:
@DGannon2016 & @FFearghal (eds), Ireland 1922: Independence, Partition, Civil War (@RIAdawson 2022).
ria.ie/ireland-1922-i…

Two go-to scholars of Irish constitutional history are @LaurCah and @DonalkCoffey.
Read:
@LaurCah, Drafting the Irish Free State Constitution (@ManchesterUP 2016), which enjoyably busts a range of myths surrounding the drafting of the 1922 Constitution: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784995119/…

@LaurCah's work right now is helping to illuminate how Ireland ended up with a constitutional provision recognising the woman's ‘life within the home’, on which a referendum will be held in November following a citizens' assembly on #genderequality.
Read:
researchrepository.ul.ie/articles/journ…

For the drafting of the 1937 Constitution, read @DonalkCoffey:
Drafting the Irish Constitution, 1935–1937: Transnational Influences in Interwar Europe (@Palgrave 2018)
Constitutionalism in Ireland, 1932–1938: National, Commonwealth, and International Perspectives (@Palgrave 2018)

Donal's work also illuminates the impact of continental European constitutions (e.g. Weimar Constitution) on Ireland's constitutional development, and draws out connections with other colonial constitutional projects within the British Empire (e.g. Burma)
maynoothuniversity.ie/people/donal-c…

Access the 1937 Constitution here:
constituteproject.org/constitution/I…

Taking a more future-focused approach to key global questions, @AileenFKavanagh's forthcoming book The Collaborative Constitution (@CUP_Law) re-thinks how we should protect rights in a #democracy, eschewing entrenched conflictual models.
Order it here: cambridge.org/core/books/col…

Read this interview with Aileen, explaining her aim to better understand fundamental inter-branch dynamics "by putting focus on the unwritten norms and emphasizing that collaboration between the three branches is at least as important as competition":
tcd.ie/provost/review…

Another leading scholar on the #separationofpowers is Eoin Carolan.
Among his books are:
The New Separation of Powers: A Theory for the Modern State (@OUPLaw 2010)
(ed) Judicial Power in Ireland (IPA 2018)
ipa.ie/law/judical-po…

To better understand the Irish judiciary, also read
@LaurCah, @JamesGallen + @TomHickeyDCU (eds), Judges, politics and the Irish Constitution (@ManchesterUP 2017), with scholars and judges discussing the complex relationships between ‘law’ and ‘politics’:
academic.oup.com/manchester-sch…

Of course, constitutional change in #Ireland is just as much - if not more - about public deliberation and referendums than courts and political actors.
We have a much more flexible constitution than e.g. US and far more frequent success of referendums than e.g. Aus.

Indeed, #Ireland's use of both direct democracy and deliberative democracy mechanisms to achieve e.g. #MarriageEquality + #abortion reform, linked to the existing political process, has garnered global attention as a model beyond court-centrism or parliamentary sovereignty.

On referendums, see e.g. @dkennytcd + @AileenFKavanagh, ‘Are the People the Masters? Constitutional Referendums in Ireland’ in @RichardAlbert & Richard Stacey (eds) The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums (@OUPLaw 2021)
global.oup.com/academic/produ…

Citizens' assemblies' importance as a feature of the constitutional landscape is discussed here:
See e.g. @oran_doyle + @rachaelawalsh, ‘Constitutional Amendment and Public Will Formation: Deliberative Mini-Publics as a Tool for Consensus Democracy’
academic.oup.com/icon/article/2…

The true capacity and impact of citizens' assemblies is, however, contested. Read e.g.
This @iacl_aidc Blog debate: blog-iacl-aidc.org/debate-the-cit…
@dfarrell_ucd, ‘We may have overdone it on citizens’ assemblies’ Irish Times (16 February 2022): irishtimes.com/opinion/we-may…

At a time when #Ireland faces an acute #HousingCrisis and serious deficiencies in everything from #health to #education, a must-read book is @rachaelawalsh, Property Rights and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action (@CUP_Law 2021):
cambridge.org/core/books/pro…

A different approach is taken by @Caseyco231, now one of the leading proponents of the global 'common good constitutionalism' movement. See 'The Irish Constitution and Common Good Constitutionalism' (forthcoming, @HarvardJLPP)
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Constitutional theorists like @eoinmauricedaly are also unmissable. Read e.g. his explanation of the relationship between constituent power and popular sovereignty:
‘Alchemising peoplehood: Rousseau’s lawgiver as a model of constituent power’ (2021)
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

Irish constitutional scholars, in collaboration with UK scholars, are also actively working on the vexed question of what Irish unification could look like, bringing light to a subject that generates a lot of heat. Read e.g. this report (May 2021):
ucl.ac.uk/constitution-u…

Work by rising stars also reflects the vibrancy of constitutional scholarship in #Ireland.
See e.g. @seana_g's work on #Covid19 governance, including a co-authored report on #Ireland for the NB Oxford Compendium of National Responses to Covid-19:
oxcon.ouplaw.com/display/10.109…

See also @monciunskaite's excellent work on #democraticdecay in the Baltics, including an article published by The Hague Journal on the Rule of Law last year on evidence of potential #RuleOfLaw #backsliding in #Lithuania and the EU’s inaction:
link.springer.com/article/10.100…

And somehow I got distracted and failed to recommend @colmocinneide's wonderful work. Check out e.g.:
'Revisiting Old Ground - TD, Sinnott and The Dangers of Clinging Too Tightly to Separation of Powers Orthodoxy' (Irish Judicial Studies Journal 2022)
ijsj.ie/assets/uploads…

'Irish Popular Sovereignty from a Domestic and Comparative Perspective' in Maria Cahill,@colmocinneide, Conor O'Mahony & Seán O'Connell (eds), Constitutional Change and Popular Sovereignty: Populism, Politics and the Law in Ireland (@routledgebooks 2021)
routledge.com/Constitutional…

(This is going to be happening me all evening now, realising I left some major scholars out of the thread! Maybe I'll do a second thread next week...)