Full Description
In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition, the authors add new features aimed
at making this fascinating subject even more accessible for students, practitioners and law
teachers alike. It employs a "Comprehension and analysis: test yourself" tool at the
beginning of each chapter, as well as recommending "Five key readings" and "Five key
cases" in each chapter, thus engaging other great scholarship and material in this rapidly
developing field.
Constitutional Law: Texts, Cases and Materials, Second Edition, includes wholly new
chapters on the historical background to the Constitution, the political structure of
government, the judicial power in the context of the political arms of government, and
standards of review. It covers all significant constitutional developments up to April 2019.
This second edition is comprised of three thematic parts. The first part looks at the Irish
constitutional order in a broader historical, theoretical and comparative context. The second
part looks at "Institutions and the separation of powers." The third part addresses rights in
Irish constitutional law.
As well as introducing key principles and themes, this casebook offers a great deal of critical
insight and analysis. In doing so, it recognises that constitutional law is not just a body of
abstract rules interpreted and applied by the courts. Instead, constitutional law is placed in
its historical, intellectual and social context and presented as an ongoing attempt to
determine the values that ought to inform governance in Ireland. The important role of the
courts in this process is recognised by the central space given to extracts from all the
leading constitutional law cases.
Contents
Part I - The Irish Constitutional Order
Key themes
Evolution and constitutional foundations
Rights in the constitutional order
Constitutional interpretation
The referendum and constitutional change
Part II - Institutions and the Separation of Powers
The political structure of government
Judges and the political arms of government
Legislative power
Executive power
Judicial power
Part III: Rights in Irish Constitutional Law
Principles of constitutional litigation
Standards of review
The Constitution and criminal Law
Equality
Personal rights
Liberty and the dwelling
The three freedoms: expression, assembly and association
The family and education
Property rights
Religion and conscience
