Human Rights in Ireland

We have hosted several posts detailing the judgment in A, B & C v. Ireland and setting out its implications for Irish law. Labour in its manifesto (p 79) had promised to legislate for the X case. Fine Gael in its manifesto (at p. 24) had proposed establishing an all-party committee to consider the implications of the European Court judgment and to make recommendations. In its Programme for Government, the Fine Gael and Labour coalition states:

We acknowledge the recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights subsequent to the established ruling of the Irish Supreme Court on the X-case. We will establish an expert group to address this issue, drawing on appropriate medical and legal expertise with a view to making recommendations to Government on how this matter should be properly addressed.

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We are pleased to welcome the latest in our series of guest responses to the judgment in A, B & C v. Ireland. This contribution is by Dr. Ruth Fletcher, of the School of Law at Keele University. Ruth is the author of Reproductive Life: Governing Abortion in Transnational Times (Ashgate, due 2011)

As Mairead has noted, there’s an awful lot to say about the decision in ABC.  For now I want to focus on a few aspects of the judgement that I find particularly troubling.  In deciding that A and B’s Article 8 rights had not been violated, the majority judgement gives a lot of weight, too much I’d say, to a descriptive conception of public morality.  It gives very little weight to health and well-being as, to use Convention language, significant aspects of an individual’s existence.  The majority also marginalises the role of consensus on human rights standards among contracting states.  Finally, in finding that recognition of the right to travel abroad is sufficient state protection of interests which may conflict with the interest in foetal life, the Court seems to conflate issues of jurisdiction and issues of health protection.

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Following on from Máiréad’s post here,  I thought it might be useful to provide a very quick primer on the Court and the Convention, particularly given the level of confusion that is already being expressed about it. For people familiar with the Court (pictured left) there will be nothing new here, but hopefully it will help to put the judgment into some context for people when it is released tomorrow. I proceed along a number of questions: what is the European Court of Human Rights, what is the Grand Chamber, is this part of the EU, are the judgments binding on Ireland, can the Court change the Constitution, and (broadly) what the implications of the judgment might be. Readers might also check out the ICCL Know Your Rights Pack on the ECHR, which can be downloaded here.

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