The Irish system of taking a single legal view on significant constitutional issues could be interpreted as an "intensified politicisation" of the judicial function, according to NUI Galway's dean of law, Donncha O'Connell.
Speaking at a law society meeting in NUI Galway (NUIG) last night, Mr O'Connell said that by contrast the US Supreme Court's ability to divide on major issues was not necessarily damaging to it as an institution.
"The idea that there should be a single or consensual view on major constitutional questions is one of the less attractive features of Irish constitutional practice," Mr O'Connell said in an address to welcome US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the university.
"Certainty in the law is but one of the requirements of the rule of law," he said. "The inevitability of applying a political assessment to what judges do will not be removed by a greater number of unanimous or consensual court decisions.
"In fact, this very phenomenon might well indicate an intensified politicisation of the judicial function."
Referring to the "expectation of infallibility" placed on members of the US Supreme Court, Mr O'Connell said this would "simply be misplaced" in Ireland because the Supreme Court here did not have the last word on constitutional questions to the same extent as its counterpart in the US.
"Indeed it's not uncommon for Irish Supreme Court decisions to be reversed by parliament, and if an unpopular court decision points up the need for constitutional change, the Irish Constitution can be amended by the people with relative ease," he said.
It was also true to say that Irish judges were "not nearly as conscious of their possible classification" as "fundamentalists, minimalists, perfectionists or majoritarians".
Justice Ginsburg, who participated in a question and answer session with students - hosted by Today FM broadcaster Ted Harding - is regarded as a liberal voice on the US Supreme Court.
