• Project Outline
• European Convention on Human Rights (1950)
• Lawless v. Ireland (1961)
• Ireland v. United Kingdom (1978) 
• Inadmissible applications (1955-78)
• Publications 
• Events and Projects
• Links

’Ireland participation in International Human Rights Law and Institutions’ was a three year Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences funded research project.  It commenced in March 2005, the research was completed in February 2008 and the project is currently at the write-up stage.  The project director is Professor William Schabas and the principal researcher is PhD Candidate, Aisling O’Sullivan. 

Its objective is to document and analyze Irish foreign policy towards the development and evolution of International Human Rights Law during its formative stage. It sub-divides into an analysis of Ireland’s involvement in human rights law-making and Ireland’s engagement in international human rights institutions. 

From the beginning, the Project Director decided to examine Ireland’s role in the development of International Human Rights Law within the Council of Europe from 1949-1978.  Hence, the project researched Ireland’s role in three seminal events in the early formative period; the drafting of the European Convention on Human Rights (1949-1950), the case of Lawless v. Ireland (1957-1961) and the inter-State case of Ireland v. United Kingdom (1971-1978).  

Primary sources

In examining Ireland’s involvement, the research primarily concentrated on material available in the Irish government papers housed in the National Archives of Ireland, Bishop St., Dublin.  This research focused on the Departments of the Taoiseach, Justice, Foreign Affairs and the Attorney General’s Office.  However, relevant material from the British National Archives has also been collected and analyzed.  Here, the papers on the ’Irish State Case’ span the Prime Minister’s Office, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Attorney General’s Chambers (and Law Officers Department) and from 1972 onwards the Northern Ireland Office).

Additionally, the Researcher, Aisling O’Sullivan, has collected all the inadmissible applications against Ireland submitted to the European Commission of Human Rights, with the kind and helpful assistance of the Archives of the European Court of Human Rights.  Finally, interviews have been conducted with the kind agreement of numerous interviewees over the course of the project term.

Final Monograph 

In light of the material collected, the final monograph will principally focus on a detailed and comprehensive behind-the-scenes narrative of Ireland’s involvement in one of the most significant cases in international human rights law, the case of Ireland v. United Kingdom (1978).  As a significant prelude to the inter-State case, the monograph will narrate and document Ireland’s involvement in the drafting of the European Convention of Human Rights (1949) and its role in first application before the European Court of Human Rights, the case of Lawless v. Ireland (1961).  

Publications

William Schabas, Ireland, the European Convention of Human Rights and the personal contribution of Sean MacBride in John Morison, Kieran McEvoy and Gordon Anthony (ed.), Judges, Transition and Human Rights (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2007).

William Schabas and Aisling O’Sullivan, Politics and Poor Weather: How Ireland sued the United Kingdom under the European Convention on Human Rights, (2007) 2 Irish Yearbook of International Law [forthcoming]                      

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