The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective



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The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective by Rosalind Dixon (editor), Adrienne Stone (editor) (z-lib.org)

Eoin Carolan

invisible in the much more limited sense that its legal status is textually vis-

ible but its content is not. On this view, it is an unwritten source of textual 

meaning.


In fact, even leaving aside the positivist aspect of this argument, Walsh J’s 

account of natural rights as legally contingent on their recognition in the con-

stitutional text seems to logically reject the O’Hanlon thesis that they should 

be regarded by the courts as superior to all positive law, including the text of 

the Constitution. If natural law is capable in its own terms of requiring and 

commanding obedience, natural rights should be self-executing rather than 

dependent for their protection on an ‘inferior’ legal authority.

This reading of Walsh J’s analysis is further supported by the guidelines 

outlined later in his decision concerning how courts should approach natural 

law arguments:

What exactly natural law is and what precisely it imports is a question which 

has exercised the minds of theologians for many centuries and on which 

they are not yet fully agreed . . . In a pluralist society such as ours, the Courts 

cannot as a matter of constitutional law be asked to choose between the dif-

fering views, where they exist, of experts on the interpretation by the different 

religious denominations of either the nature or extent of these natural rights 

as they are to be found in the natural law. The same considerations apply also 

to the question of ascertaining the nature and extent of the duties which flow 

from natural law . . . In this country it falls finally upon the judges to interpret 

the Constitution and in doing so to determine, where necessary, the rights 

which are superior or antecedent to positive law or which are imprescriptible 

or inalienable. In the performance of this difficult duty there are certain 

guidelines laid down in the Constitution for the judge . . . The judges must, 

therefore, as best they can from their training and their experience interpret 

these rights in accordance with th[e] ideas of prudence, justice and charity 

[recognised in the Preamble].

37

Perhaps because of its focus on the practicalities of the litigation process, this 



passage has sometimes been less cited than other aspects of Walsh J’s judgment. 

It is, however, of critical importance to the question of the precise relation-

ship between natural law and the text of the Constitution because it expressly 

disavows the proposition that the courts should treat religious teachings as a 

distinct source of constitutional value. This runs counter to the misconcep-

tion evident in much of the Irish commentary that any acknowledgement 

37 

[1974] IR 284, 317–19.




 

The Evolution of Natural Law in Ireland 

445


of natural law necessarily commits the courts to enforce a freestanding and 

non-constitutional set of religious (or even moral) norms.

Desmond Clarke, for example, has criticised the reasoning of Kenny J in 

Ryan for a perceived logical delegation of constitutional decision-making to 

Christian institutions:

[T]he State in Ireland is governed by laws that were inspired by Christianity, 

and their proper interpretation requires the courts to understand them as 

reflecting specifically Christian values. The wide diversity of Christian beliefs, 

especially since the Reformation, would require judges to decide authorita-

tively between alternative theological interpretations of Christianity, or to 

consult Christian theologians about what Christianity would require in dis-

putes about legal rights in much the same way as De Valera consulted Revd 

McQuaid when drafting the text. Alternatively, courts could refer disputed 

theological claims to an authoritative Christian court.

38

Similarly, Doyle’s discussion of the natural law unenumerated rights case law 



seems in places to overstate the breadth of the discretion as both envisaged 

and exercised by the post-Ryan courts.

[T]he unenumerated rights doctrine leaves open the possibility that all unjust 

rules can be overturned once they are sought to be applied. The avoidance 

of an injustice is considered more important than the general need for law to 

have and maintain a determinate position that can be identified in a way that 

does not call for moral judgment. Of course, this does not just undermine 

the certainty of laws only when a particular law is overturned: it leaves open 

a standing possibility that any law can be overturned. The test for overturning 

such a law is ‘the Natural Law’.

39

This would be a valid concern if, for example, the Supreme Court had ever 



endorsed Albert Keating’s suggestion that the basic norm of Ireland is that ‘one 

ought to obey the natural law’.

40

 Keating’s argument, however elides the exist-



ence, authority, obligatory character and legal status of natural law in a way 

that is unnecessary, arguably confused and certainly without obvious support 

in the Supreme Court’s case law.

The O’Hanlon thesis similarly assumes that a natural law dimension logi-

cally requires that constitutional adjudication be subordinated to a separate set 

38 


Desmond M. Clarke, ‘Unenumerated Rights in Constitutional Law’ (2011) 34 Dublin Univer-


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