PLG - The Collaborative Constitution

Speaker: Professor Aileen Kavanagh (Trinity College Dublin)

Chair: Dr Silvia Suteu (UCL Laws)

Commentators: Professor Jeff King and Professor Colm O'Cinneide (UCL Laws)

About the Book: In this book, Aileen Kavanagh offers a fresh account of how we should protect rights in a democracy. Departing from leading theoretical accounts which present the courts and legislature as rivals for constitutional supremacy, Kavanagh argues that protecting rights is a collaborative enterprise between all three branches of government - the Executive, the legislature, and the courts. On a collaborative vision of constitutionalism, protecting rights is neither the solitary task of a Herculean super-judge, nor the dignified pronouncements of an enlightened legislature. Instead, it is a complex, dynamic, and collaborative endeavour, where each branch has a distinct but complementary role to play, whilst engaging with each other in a spirit of comity and mutual respect. Connecting constitutional theory with the practice of protecting rights in a democracy, this book offers an innovative understanding of the separation of powers, grounded in the values and virtues of constitutional collaboration.

About the Speaker: Professor Aileen Kavanagh is Chair of Constitutional Governance at Trinity College Dublin and Director of TriCON - the Trinity Centre for Constitutional Governance. She has written widely on comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, and human rights law. Aileen is author of Constitutional Review under the UK Human Rights Act which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009. Her new book - The Collaborative Constitution - is due out with Cambridge University Press in November 2023.

About the Group: The UCL Public Law Group is a community of scholars working in the field of public law, broadly understood. Our aim is to provide a supportive forum for the discussion and development of theoretical and doctrinal questions in constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, human rights, judicial review, legal and political theory, and more. Read more about the group and its work.

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