Ireland's Constitutional Amendability and Europe's Constitutional Ambition

This chapter examines the constitutional conflict that occurs in the context of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. It begins by distinguishing the concepts "direct democracy" and "constitutional democracy" in order to clarify the importance of referenda if they are used as the constitutional amendability procedure in a functioning constitutional democracy. It then considers the place of amendability procedure in Irish constitutional history. It discusses Ireland's constitutional amendability procedure vis-à-vis European treaty referenda. The chapter concludes by examining the three ways in which Europe's constitutional ambitions are intimately tied up with national constitutional amendability procedures.