Private property rights in the Irish Constitution

Abstract

This Thesis analyses the protection of private property rights in the Irish Constitution both critically and constructively. Critically, it examines the results driven nature of Irish constitutional property doctrine through detailed analysis of case-law. Constructively, it extracts the judicial preferences concerning property that are latent in the doctrine and assesses the theoretical arguments concerning the value of private ownership that they reflect in order to better explain the Irish constitutional orientation towards private property rights. The Thesis is the product of extensive textual analysis of primary and secondary sources. I principally studied the Irish Constitution and judgments of the Irish courts. I also considered decisions from the US and the UK, as well as decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. I analysed Irish statutes and secondary legislation where relevant. I also studied secondary literature on the protection of private property and constitutional property rights adjudication from various library collections.