ABSTRACT
Writers have spoken of 'the global expansion of judicial power', the growing 'judicialisation' or 'juridification' of politics, the transfer of 'an unprecedented amount of power from representative institutions to judiciaries', and the transformation of democracy into 'juristocracy'. Although most liberal democracies feel that they have established a reasonable balance between constitutionalism and democracy, the tension undoubtedly exists, and has at times clearly manifested itself in Ireland. Ireland's constitution dates from 1937 and, despite significant innovations, marked a development of previous constitutional experience rather than a complete break with it. Moreover, although constitutions are usually more powerful than ordinary legislation, so that if the two conflict it is the constitution that prevails, the Irish Free State constitution was a weak document. For many, it was regarded as a product of de Valera's Ireland, a narrow Catholic and nationalist document that sought to impose the mores of the 1930s political elite upon a changing and modernising country.
