In this article I argue that an accommodationist approach to Church-State relations provides the most appropriate interpretation of the Irish Constitution. This accommodationist interpretation is however incompatible with Ireland's system of almost exclusively denominational education, in which...

This paper examines the link made on occasion between the concept of dignity and substantive equality; it is further noted that dignity can have very different meanings in different contexts. While the notion of dignity does not often play a substantive role in the resolution of decisions,...

Submission to the Ad Hoc Committee on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. Summary: The Good Friday or Belfast Agreement 1998 envisaged reforms that would contribute to wider social and economic transformation, among these a Bill of Rights. Many of these reforms have not been delivered and...

This paper examines the link made on occasion between the concept of dignity and substantive equality; it is further noted that dignity can have very different meanings in different contexts. While the notion of dignity does not often play a substantive role in the resolution of decisions,...

Increasingly we find that legislatures are considering human rights issues. This article looks at one area where legislative assemblies may offer a distinctive contribution to human rights protection, when exercising their historic role in matters of finance and budgets. The purpose of this...

This chapter examines a necessarily select list of Article 14 (the prohibition of discrimination) jurisprudence involving ethnic minorities, most notably the Roma minority in post-Communist countries before the European Court of Human Rights (the Court). The aim is to identify to what extent, if...

This paper examines the approach of the Irish courts to social and economic rights, and proposes using the equality doctrine to provide indirect protection for these rights. The papers draws on comparative material from Canada, South Africa, the US and the European convention on Human Rights to...

Human rights law proclaims that all persons are the same, and have the same rights. Yet this revolutionary claim, which has overturned political regimes and confounded conventions, has itself been criticised. The criticisms have often come from a non-legal disciplinary background - anthropology,...