Criminal Justice and Penal Populism in Ireland

Legal Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 559-579, 2008

Posted: 2 Dec 2008

See all articles by Liz Campbell

Liz Campbell

Monash University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: December 2, 2008

Abstract

In constructing criminal policy the Irish legislature seems to be driven predominantly by a pragmatic and populist approach, in contrast to the rights-oriented jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. This paper describes the conflict between the courts and the legislature in relation to criminal justice matters in Ireland, particularly in the context of bail, the exclusionary rule and sentencing, and analyses the reasons for this divergence, drawing on the concept of penal populism. Although the Irish courts serve as a valuable bulwark against punitive populist policies, this paper considers if this failure to adhere to the desires of the legislature and to public opinion is anti-democratic. Furthermore, in assessing the apparent rift between the two arms of the Irish State, this paper highlights areas of criminal justice in which this conceptualisation of the legislature as punitive and the courts as rights-enforcing is unduly simplistic and possibly inaccurate.

Keywords: criminal justice, penal policy, populism, judicial activism

Suggested Citation

Campbell, Liz, Criminal Justice and Penal Populism in Ireland (December 2, 2008). Legal Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 559-579, 2008 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1310208

Liz Campbell (Contact Author)

Monash University - Faculty of Law ( email )

Wellington Road
Clayton, Victoria 3800
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/liz-campbell

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
395
PlumX Metrics