Seanad debates
Wednesday, 18 June 2003
European Convention on Human Rights Bill 2001: Second Stage.
I attended a lecture by an individual with distinguished legal mind, Donncha O'Connell, who is a lecturer in law in the National University of Ireland, Galway, on 26 November last year on this attempt at incorporation. He called it clever and elegant or too clever by half. One can guess on which side he comes down. He said that we take the worst of the options and we do what is done when we feel particularly intellectually lazy, namely, we look to see what the United Kingdom has done. He calls it the Delia Smith factor in that we reach down and say "Here is one I prepared earlier". That is what we have done, despite the fact, as Senator Mansergh pointed out in his interesting contribution, that this is not really primarily a parliamentary democracy. This is much more a constitutional democracy.
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