The politics of judicial selection in Ireland

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

‘Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s timely and insightful book sheds light on an area of Irish law and politics that has been, at best, murky … her book offers remarkable insight, fascinating original research, and some suggestions on where we should go from here. It is a work that was sorely needed, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the Irish judiciary, or its relationship with the political branches of government … Carroll MacNeill concludes here book with a series of practical suggestions for improving the appointments process both in the short and medium term. Both JAAB practice and some statutory reforms are suggested. These are sensible and would be deeply worthwhile … Carroll MacNeill’s brilliant work has given us remarkable new insights into judicial selection’, Dr David Kenny, Dublin University Law Journal (2016).


‘This book is a thorough and fair treatment, packing in a lot of new and useful information in a field which was crying out for it. It is also timely and so is likely to influence the necessary changes, which seem to be on the way … The pedigree of the author is unusual, and, I think, unusually apt, for this work … Dr Carroll MacNeill has been a political scientist, practicing lawyer, legal advisor in the Fine Gael leader’s office and special adviser in the Department of Justice’, David Gwynn Morgan, Irish Times (June 2016).

‘Offering a cross-national comparative context, this book examines the mode of appointing senior judges in common law systems, in which judges are chosen by a politically governed process from the ranks of senior lawyers’, Ringgold (December 2016).