3 - Property as Ideology, Individual Right, and Institution

Summary

This chapter provides historically informed analysis of the double protection of property rights and property as an institution in the Irish Constitution, and of the property ideology that generated that duality. It addresses the nature of the property rights guarantees, their drafting history, and their relationship as developed thorugh judicial interpretation. It analyses the fascinating origins of the progressive framing of constitutional property rights in the Irish constitutional context, and shows how the drafters sought to establish a division of labour whereby the courts would protect property rights with the interpretation and application of private ownership's 'social aspect' would primarily be a matter for the legislature. Subsequent chapters build on this insight by showing how that division of labour has largely been respected by judges in interpreting constitutional property rights adjudication, and how a complex dual committment to both private ownership and redistribution to secure social justice continues to animate Irish constitutional property law, both inside and beyond the courts.