New book to examine politics of judicial selection in Ireland

The Politics of Judicial Selection in Ireland, written by Dr Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, will be published by Four Courts Press this month.

Based on interviews with senior judges, current and former politicians, attorneys-general and members of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, it “tells the inside story of the process by which judges were chosen over the past three decades and charts a path for future reform of judicial appointment processes in Ireland”.

The author is a barrister and former solicitor who has worked as a lawyer in the public service, both within the Oireachtas as Legal Adviser in the Office of the Leader of Fine Gael and within Government as Special Adviser in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and in the Department of Justice and Equality.

She is a political scientist with a research interest in political institutions and the judiciary. She completed her PhD research at the School of Politics and International Relations, UCD, and is both a IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholar and the winner of the Basil Chubb Prize 2015 for the best politics PhD in Ireland.