CRUMMEY, CONOR
(2023)
Unconstitutional Evictions.
Irish Judicial Studies Journal, 7 (3).
pp. 1-24.
ISSN 2712-0317
Abstract
Earlier this year, the Irish Government pressed ahead with plans to allow a temporary legislative
ban on ‘no-fault’ evictions to expire. In this article, I argue that Article 40.5 of the Constitution, which
protects the inviolability of the dwelling, would be implicated in any case in which the courts must decide
whether the law requires them to enforce evictions against tenants. This is the position even in cases involving
private landlords, and where the tenants continue to occupy the landlord’s property in defiance of a valid notice
of termination. To make this argument, I analyse the case law surrounding Art 40.5 and offer an account of
the normative underpinnings of that provision. In early cases, it was thought that Art 40.5 was concerned
with forcible entry into one’s home by the State. While this is certainly a relevant aspect of Art 40.5, I argue
that subsequent cases make clear that this provision is underpinned by a richer conception of the moral value
of the home. Drawing on recent work in moral philosophy, I argue that the ‘dwelling’ referred to in the
Constitution has an important social aspect. We have standing to demand that our home, or dwelling, is not
interfered with because control over a private space of one’s own is essential for forming intimate human
relationships and pursuing valuable ends. When we see that this is the conception of the dwelling with which
Art 40.5 is concerned, it becomes clear that tenants have standing to demand a heightened level of justification
from the State before their eviction is enforced.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Unconstitutional; Evictions; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Law |
| Item ID: |
17927 |
| Depositing User: |
Conor Crummey
|
| Date Deposited: |
12 Dec 2023 11:44 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Irish Judicial Studies Journal |
| Publisher: |
Office of the Chief Justice of Ireland |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
Altmetric
Altmetric