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11 U. Brit. Colum. L. Rev. 294 (1977)
Personal Rights under the Irish Constitution

handle is hein.journals/ubclr11 and id is 306 raw text is: PERSONAL RIGHTS UNDER THE IRISH CONSTITUTION ROBERT F. HEUSTON* INTRODUCTION In the Fourth Goodman Lecture on 18 May 1976 Sir Leslie Scar- man said: Irish judges administer an admirable constitution, and find no embarrassment. They do not find themselves accused of being politically activated. So it might be interesting to study the experi- ence of the Republic of Irelanct in this area since its Constitution was enacted by the people in 1937. The Constitution is a rigid one recog- nising the doctrine of the separation of power&1 It establishes a bi- cameral legislatur, the Oireachtas; an executive responsible to the lower House of Parliament, Dail Eireann, on the traditional lines of the British Constitution; and a judiciary composed of a High Court and a Supreme Court, each with nine judges. The Constitution was not enacted by- any legislative assembly either in Ireland or in Great Britain. Instead it was enacted at a plebiscite by the Irish people themselves, and it came into force on 29 Decem- ber 1937. As the Constitution is not an Act of the Oireachtas, it logically, if inconveniently, does not appear in the published volume of statutes for 1937 but has to be bought in a separate publication.' However, the subsequent amendments of the Constitution are Acts of the Oireachtas, although a referendum became constitutionally necessary for such amendments in 1941. So conveniently these amendments do appear in the published volumes of the Statutes - though, illogically, the amendments do not form part of the num- bered series of Acts, but are placed at the front of the annual bound volumes. Amendments were passed in the years 1939, 1941, 1972 (twice) and 1973. D.C.L., Professor of Law, University of Dublin. I Re Haughey [,971] I.L 217, at 250. 2 From the Government Publications Sales Office, GPO, Dublin i.

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