The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland Quotes

“Ireland is different from the other countries that introduced institutional change in the judicial selection system. Policy changed occurred quickly and without the debate that took place in other countries. Institutional change to judicial selection processes was introduced although there was little evidence of political commitment to such change. The trigger for institutional change was the need to find a solution to a political crisis that might prevent the coalition government from breaking up.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland

“Constitutional democracy is based on two simultaneous but competing principles: a commitment to the will of the majority and a commitment to limit the potential excesses of the popular majority by recourse to a set of fundamental laws.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland

“The difficulty with the Irish model is that it arguably provides neither transparency nor accountability in judicial selection.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland

“Getting institutional design in major institutional reform right is important. Ireland did it in a particularly unusual way.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland

“While the [Judicial Appointments Advisory] Board does take soundings, it has never conducted any interviews out of concerns for confidentiality and concerns about what could or should be asked in those interviews.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland

“A major contention of this book is that reform of the Irish judicial selection system was not a product of policy preferences or political commitment, but rather a reaction to a political crisis.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland

“Institutional design of this new model occurred without reference to external stakeholders or any policy deliberative process such as consultation exercises or policy papers.”
― Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland