Colm O’Cinneide

Previous posts in this blog symposium have outlined the design, purpose and functioning of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, and offered different perspectives on its impact on the 2018 Irish abortion referendum. But there is another dimension to the debate about the Assembly which is worth discussing - namely the international attention it has attracted.

David Kenny

The task facing the Citizens’ Assembly was very challenging. It had to deal with many issues of medical, ethical and legal importance; to hear personal stories alongside complex regulatory information; and to offer space for ordinary citizens to process and deliberate on all of this.

Giovanni Di Cosimo

The Italian political system has changed while transitioning from the first Republic to the second. In the early 1990s, traditional parties disappeared and new parties were set up, in particular Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi in 1994. More recently, the scene has further changed. In 2009 the Five Star Movement was born, which won the elections in March 2018 and now governs the country with the Lega. These transformations took place along two paths, the personal party and the digital party, which eventually overlap.

Máiréad Enright

The 2016-2017 Irish Citizens’ Assembly served some feminist goals. However, it was structured around four flawed assumptions: 

First, abortion law was properly a subject for communal decision-making, even though some of the most intimate aspects of women’s lives were at stake.

Laura Cahillane

While the Citizens’ Assembly has been widely lauded as a success, it is important to remember that the success pertains to the issue of the Eighth Amendment only. This exercise proved useful in that once the Assembly had made its recommendations, it then allowed the Government to proceed with a referendum on the basis that there was a solid basis for putting the question to the people …

Argelia Queralt Jiménez

Editors’ Note: In October 2017 Catalonia experienced acute political and constitutional crisis following the holding of an independence referendum and subsequent unilateral declarations of independence from Spain issued by the Catalan parliament. Roughly one year on, we gather two diverging perspectives on the crisis and its aftermath, from Mireia Grau and Argelia Queralt Jiménez.

Mireia Grau Creus

Editors’ Note: In October 2017 Catalonia experienced acute political and constitutional crisis following the holding of an independence referendum and subsequent unilateral declarations of independence from Spain issued by the Catalan parliament. Roughly one year on, we gather two diverging perspectives on the crisis and its aftermath, from Mireia Grau and Argelia Queralt Jiménez.

Eoin Carolan

Ireland seems to be becoming the poster-child for progressive constitutional politics. The liberal-leaning results of successive referenda on marriage equality, abortion, and blasphemy ran counter to widely-held international conceptions of Irish society as “until recently …. deeply conservative”.

Fiona de Londras

Given how contentious abortion tends to be as a matter of both political and legal discourse, it may be tempting to seek out a ‘silver bullet’ from the Irish experience; to find what, if anything, made our experience of abortion law reform so distinctive and, from the perspective of those in favor of liberalization, so successful.

Yonatan Fessha

A few months ago, Isaias Afeworki, President of the Eritrean government, received delegates from Ethiopia. This would not make big news as receiving dignitaries usually forms part of the itinerary of a head of state. But it is still a major news and, one may argue, understandably so. These are two countries that have been in state of war for the last 20 years.