Overview
- Pioneers a new method of constitutional dating in order to re-construct the drafting of the 1937 Irish Constitution
- Places the Constitution within the context of transnational constitutional trends
- Appeals to scholars of Irish legal and constitutional history, comparative legal history, and European history
Part of the book series: Palgrave Modern Legal History (PMLH)
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About this book
The second of two volumes, this book situates the drafting of the Irish Constitution within broader transnational constitutional currents. Donal K. Coffey pioneers a new method of draft sequencing in order to track early influences in the drafting process and demonstrate the importance of European influences such as the German, Polish, and Portuguese Constitutions to the Irish drafts. He also analyses the role that religion played in the drafting process, and considers the new institutions of state, such as the presidency and the senate, tracing the genesis of these institutions to other continental constitutions. Together with volume I, Constitutionalism in Ireland, 1932–1938, this book argues that the 1937 Constitution is only explicable within the context of the European and international trends which inspired it.
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Keywords
- drafts of the Irish Constitution
- Constitution drafting process
- doctrine of unenumerated rights
- Irish continental constitutionalism
- Eamon de Valera
- Fianna Fail
- Bunreacht nahEireann
- Constitution Committee of 1934
- John Hearne
- John Charles McQuaid
- Fr. Denis Fahey
- Irish political life in 1930s
- 1932 general election
- Oireachtas of the Irish Free State
Table of contents (7 chapters)
Reviews
“[Coffey] is almost unique in combining the skills of an expert historian and constitutional lawyer and with these two stunning books he takes this research to an entirely new level. … Coffey has produced two companion volumes which are likely to stand the test of time as the definitive accounts of the drafting of the Constitution. These two volumes combine the assiduous attention to detail of the historian with the lucid and crisp analysis of a profound constitutional scholar.” (Gerard Hogan, Parliaments, Estates and Representation, Vol. 40 (3), 2020) “This is a book that has needed to be written for some time. Donal K. Coffey takes a relatively short document, drafted in a relatively short space of time, by a relatively small group of men, and places it firmly within its international context. He also takes the reader on an in-depth but readable exposé of the drafting process, further teasing out the conceptual, philosophical, legal, and international influences on the final document. Essential reading for any historian of Ireland, the Commonwealth, or constitutional development.” (Coleman Dennehy, University College Dublin, Ireland)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Donal K. Coffey is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Drafting the Irish Constitution, 1935–1937
Book Subtitle: Transnational Influences in Interwar Europe
Authors: Donal K. Coffey
Series Title: Palgrave Modern Legal History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76246-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-76245-6Published: 24 May 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09441-6Published: 26 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-76246-3Published: 04 May 2018
Series ISSN: 2947-6186
Series E-ISSN: 2947-6194
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 312
Topics: Legal History, History of Britain and Ireland, Imperialism and Colonialism, Constitutional Law