Biography
I am an Associate Professor and Fellow at the School of Law, teaching and researching in the areas of property law and theory and constitutional law and theory. I am the Law School's Director of Global Engagement and Erasmus Coordinator. I previously worked as a permanent Lecturer in Law at King's College London. There, I taught property law and environmental law and served as the Director of the Joint Degree with Columbia Law School and the Study Abroad Programme. Prior to that, I was an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin. I completed my PhD at Trinity College Dublin, where I was funded by an Ussher Scholarship. I obtained an LLM degree from Harvard Law School as a Fulbright Scholar. I am also a qualified barrister.
I am recognised internationally as a leader in constitutional law and property law. Throughout my work, I aim to connect legal theory and practice through analysing the underpinnings and drivers of law 'in action'. Key recent publications include Property Rights and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and Kelly: The Irish Constitution (Bloomsbury, 2018), which is the seminal text on Irish constitutional law. These books complement peer-reviewed publications in journals of high standing in both constitutional law and property law.
My research examines how constitutions shape democracies and set parameters for solving social problems, both procedural and value-based. In my current projects, I analyse the role of citizens in constitutional reform and the balance between the individual and the community in the protection of property rights. I do so through the prism of global challenges, for example securing safe and secure housing (including over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic), effectively designing and implementing climate mitigation measures, and restoring trust in democracy.
My property scholarship focuses in various ways on the question of how the State can restrict the exercise of property rights to secure the common good, analysing whether property law, and ideology, limits the legal and political scope for progressive policy reforms in response to urgent problems such as climate change. Accordingly, my research cross-cuts a range of subject areas, including property law and theory, constitutional law and theory, environmental law, planning law, housing law, and human rights law.
As well as focusing on the interaction between constitutional law and property law, I research other constitutional problems. Given the rise of populist politics around the world, there is an urgent need to reconnect people with political processes. Increasing citizen participation is proposed as one solution, with Ireland pointed to internationally as a leading example. Arising out of my role as constitutional law advisor to the Irish Citizens' Assembly, my research also explores the role that citizens play in changing and updating constitutions, in particular through deliberative processes.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Rachael Walsh, Common Good Constitutionalism and the Individual " A Property Perspective, American Journal of Jurisprudence, 69, (1), 2024
Developing Resilient Property Systems: Legal Opportunities and Challenges in, editor(s)Magdalena Habdas , Rethinking Expropriation Law IV, Netherlands, Eleven, 2024, pp309 - 325, [Rachael Walsh]
Progressive Property's Thomistic Turn: Connecting Human Sustenance and Human Flourishing in, editor(s)Chris Bevan , Property Law and Theory Handbook, Edward Elgar, UK, Edward Elgar, 2024, [Rachael Walsh]
Rachael Walsh, Constitutional Property and Progressive Property's Compatibility: A Reappraisal, Texas A&M Journal of Property Law, 10, (1), 2024, p81 - 109
Rachael Walsh, 'Doctrinal Coherence and the Dwelling in Irish Constitutional Law', Dublin University Law Journal, 2024
Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh, Assessing the Influence and Legitimacy of Citizen Deliberation on Abortion: A Reply to Eoin Carolan and Seana Glennon, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 22, (1), 2024, p204 - 208
Property Rights and Democratic Decision-Making: Lessons from the 1922 Constitution in, editor(s)Laura Cahillane and Donal Coffey , The Centenary of the Irish Free State Constitution: Constituting a Polity?, UK, Palgrave, Palgrave Modern Legal History, 2024, pp197 - 215, [Rachael Walsh]
Deliberative Property: Managing Complexity in Property Systems in, editor(s)John Oberdiek, Paul Miller , Oxford Studies in Private Law Theory, Oxford, OUP, 2024, [Rachael Walsh]
Rachael Walsh, Specifying Interpersonal Responsibilities in Private Law, American Journal of Jurisprudence, 68, (2), 2023, p141 - 151
Rachael Walsh, Distributing Collective Burdens and Benefits: O'Reilly, TD, and the Housing Crisis, Irish Judicial Studies Journal , 6, (3), 2022, p63 - 70, p63-70
Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh, Constitutional Amendment and Public Will Formation: Deliberative Mini-Publics as a Tool for Consensus Democracy, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 20, 2022, p398 - 427
Rachael Walsh, Distributing the Costs of Change: Property Transitions and Pacts, International Journal of Law in Context, 18, (2), 2022
Rachael Walsh, Review of Open Democracy : Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century, by Helene Landemore , International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2021, phttps://doi.org/10.1093/icon/m
Deliberative Mini-Publics as a Response to Populist Democratic Backsliding in, editor(s)Maria Cahill, Colm O'Cinneide, Seán Ó Conaill and Conor O'Mahony , Constitutional Change and Popular Sovereignty: Populism, Politics and the Law in Ireland, London, Routledge, 2021, [Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh]
Rachael Walsh, Property Rights and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021
Securing Possession of the Home in the COVID-19 Context in, editor(s)Elsabe van der Sijde , Property Responses to a Global Pandemic, South Africa, Juta, 2021, pp165 - 182, [Rachael Walsh]
Rachael Walsh and Sarah Hamill (chapter authors) Deirdre Ahern and Suryapratim Roy (report editors), Policy Responses to Covid-19 In Ireland: Supporting Individuals, Communities, Businesses, and the Economy, COVID-19 Legal Observatory, Trinity College Dublin, December, 2020, p1 - 108
Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh, Deliberation in Constitutional Amendment: Reappraising Ireland's Deliberative Mini-Publics, European Constitutional Law Review, 16, (3), 2020, p440 - 465
Rachael Walsh, Climate Change Retrofitting Obligations - Ireland, 2020
Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh, Participatory Democracy in Ireland: Citizens' Assemblies, Studi Senesi, 131, 2019, p485 - 496
Rachael Walsh, Climate Action and Constitutional Property Rights - Partners or Adversaries?, Dublin University Law Journal, 42, (2), 2019, p131 - 149
Rachael Walsh and Lorna Fox O'Mahony, Land Law, Property Ideologies and the British Irish Relationship, Common Law World Review, 47, 2018, p7 - 34
GW Hogan, GF Whyte, D Kenny, R Walsh, Kelly: The Irish Constitution, Fifth edition, Dublin, Bloomsbury Professional, 2018, 1 - 2765pp
The Marginality of Property in Expropriation Law: A Comparative Assessment in, editor(s)Gustav Muller, Reghard Brits, Bradley Slade, Jeannie van Eyk , Transformative Property Law, South Africa, Juta, 2018, pp21 - 51, [Bradley Slade and Rachael Walsh]
Rachael Walsh, Property, Human Flourishing, and St Thomas Aquinas: Assessing a Contemporary Revival, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 31, (1), 2018, p197 - 222
Comparative Constitutional Property Law in, editor(s)Lionel Smith and Michele Graziadei , Research Handbook on Comparative Property Law, US, Elgar, 2017, pp193 - 216, [Rachael Walsh and Andre van der Walt]
Reviewing Expropriations: The Search for 'External Guidance" in, editor(s)Hanri Mostert and Leon Verstappen , Rethinking Public Interest in Expropriation Law, The Netherlands and South Africa, Eleven Publishing and Juta Publishing, 2015, [Rachael Walsh]
Gerard Hogan, David Kenny, Rachael Walsh, An Anthology of Declarations of Unconstitutionality, Irish Jurist, 54, 2015, p1 - 35
Rachael Walsh, Stability and Predictability in English Property Law - The Impact of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Reassessed, Law Quarterly Review, 131, (October), 2015, p585 - 609
Belfast Corporation v OD Cars - Setting Parameters for Restricting Use in, editor(s)Robin Hiickey, Simon Douglas and Emma Waring , Landmark Cases in Property Law, Oxford: UK, Hart Publishing, 2015, pp227 - 252, [Rachael Walsh]
Expropriation in Ireland in, editor(s)Jacques Sluysmans, Emma Waring, Stijn Verbist , Expropriation Law in Europe, Netherlands, Wolters Kluwer, 2015, [Rachael Walsh]
Rachael Walsh and Eloise Scotford, The Symbiosis of Property and English Environmental Law - Property Rights in a Public Law Context, Modern Law Review, 76, 2013, p1010-
The Evolving Relationship Between Property and Participation in English Planning Law in, editor(s)Nick Hopkins , Modern Studies in Property Law Volume 7, Oxford, UK, Hart Publishing, 2013, pp283 - [Rachael Walsh]
King's Law Journal, Special Edition, 'The Interface of Public and Private Concepts of Property', 24, 2, (2013), Rachael Walsh, Tanya Aplin, Leslie Turano-Taylor, [eds.], Special Edition Editor
Rachael Walsh , Private Property Rights in the Drafting of the Irish Constitution - A Communitarian Compromise, Dublin University Law Review, 33, 2011, p86-
Rachael Walsh , Integrating Proportionality into Public Authority Possession Applications - Conclusive Answers from the Supreme Court?, King's Law Journal, 22, 2011, p414-
Rachael Walsh , Property in the Margins, King's Law Journal, 21, 2010, p591-
Rachael Walsh , The Principles of Social Justice - The Compulsory Acquisition of Private Property for Redevelopment in the United States and Ireland, Dublin University Law Journal , 32, 2010, p1-
Rachael Walsh , The Constitution, Property Rights and Proportionality - A Reappraisal, Dublin University Law Journal , 31, 2009, p1-
Rachael Walsh, Cogley v RTE and Aherne v RTE, Trinity College Law Review, 9, (1), 2006, p137 - 146
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Rachael Walsh, 'Constitutional Property Rights: Setting Parameters for Responding to the Housing Crisis', Housing Commission Expert Conference on a Referendum on Housing, University College Dublin, 21/05/22, 2022
Rachael Walsh, Opinion on the Implications of Constitutional Property Rights for Responses to the Housing Crisis', 2020
H2020 consortium, 'RESILENS: Realising European Resilience for Critical Infrastructure', http://resilens.eu, 2018, -
Rachael Walsh, Compensation for Expropriation - 'Democratic Discounting', Rethinking Expropriation: Compensation for Expropriation, University of Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016, 2016
Rachael Walsh, Tanya Aplin, Leslie Turano-Taylor, The Public/Private Interface of Property, King's Law Journal, 24, (2), 2013, p1-
Research Expertise
Description
I have established myself as an international leader in property and constitutional law through 2 books and 39 articles/chapters. My scholarship distinctively integrates analysis of private law (governing legal relations between private individuals) and public law (governing State/individual relations), transforming understandings of disciplinary boundaries at national and international levels. I interrogate how legal protections for owners shape equitable responses to global challenges, like affordable housing and climate mitigation. For example, my accepted chapter in the forthcoming peer-reviewed "Oxford Studies in Private Law Theory" series critically analyses the relationship between legal regulation, stakeholder deliberation, and judicial decision-making in mortgage arrears crises. The importance of my research was reflected in its selection for the Provost's Annual Review. I achieve real-world impacts through my scholarship. I am currently Lead PI for the interdisciplinary ASHA (Achieving Sustainable Housing Affordably) project, awarded 400,000 euros in TRDA funding in June 2023, and I was previously Co-PI in the H2020 RESILENS project. My monograph 'Property and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action' (CUP, 2021) showed how property rights and social justice can be effectively mediated through law. It was reviewed as 'exemplary' and 'insightful' (International Journal of Constitutional Law) and cited by the Irish Supreme Court in 2024. I broke new ground in Irish constitutional law as co-author of Kelly: The Irish Constitution (Bloomsbury, 2018). This treatise is recognised internationally as providing the authoritative academic analysis of all aspects Irish constitutional law and is routinely cited by the Irish Supreme Court. Relatedly, and arising out of my role as constitutional law advisor to the Citizens' Assembly, my research analyses how citizens influence constitutional reform, including through publications in leading international peer-reviewed journals, such as the International Constitutional Law Journal. This research also has important social impact, and I have advised at EU and international levels on citizen deliberation.Projects
- Title
- RESILENS
- Summary
- Funded H2020 interdisciplinary project, working with SME's, public bodies and academics on resilience planning in core infrastructure development.
- Funding Agency
- EU Commission
- Date From
- Estimated June 2015
Recognition
Representations
Appointed member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Citizen's Assembly on the Eighth Amendment, Fixed Term Parliaments, and Referendums. This is widely regarded as the foremost global example of citizen deliberation on constitutional reform. I was appointed by its Chairperson, former Supreme Court Judge Mary Laffoy. I had responsibility for intensive work to prepare the work programme and agendas for the Assembly on abortion, identify appropriate speakers, review expert papers, draft proposals and ballot papers, and attend at the Assembly's workshops to answer questions from the citizens and track and respond to the development of the Assembly's work. Its recommendations fed directly into the successful referendum on abortion that was held in May 2018.
Board Member, Director (volunteer) O'Cualann Co-housing Alliance (Approved Housing Body and Registered Charity). I am a Director of an innovative housing body, supporting affordable housing developments throughout Ireland and developing a distinctive model regularly cited by politicians as exemplary.
Editor, Legal Studies. Legal Studies is a leading international generalist law journal, impact factor 0.7, covering all subject areas within the discipline, and published by CUP. I have responsibility for managing all aspects ofthe peer-review and editorial processes, liaising with the production, publication, and marketing teams, supporting early career researchers, and advancing the journal's mission of diversifying its pool of authors and reviewers. I was appointed following a competitive selection process by the Society of Legal Scholars.
External Examiner for University College Dublin - overall responsibility for reviewing academic standards across all modules in Property and Trusts law (core areas of the curriculum). Responsibilities include attendance at exam boards, review of exam papers and liaising with academics, review of exam results data.
Consultant to the Law Reform Commission for its Compulsory Acquisition of Land report (published in March 2023 - https://www.lawreform.ie/_fileupload/Reports/LRC%20127%202023/LRC-127%202003%20-%20Compulsory%20Acquisition%20of%20Land%20-%20W%20Cover.pdf), providing expert advice on the future direction of law reform on compulsory purchase in Ireland, which is an area of law that is vital to ensuring effective responses to the ongoing housing crisis.
Award application reviewer, Fulbright Commission of Ireland
Peer-reviewer, monograph proposals, Routledge
Peer-reviewer, monograph proposals, Oxford University Press
Peer-reviewer, The Irish Jurist
Peer-reviewer, Irish Judicial Studies Institute Journal
Peer reviewer, Irish Supreme Court Review
External advisor, Housing Commission, Ireland. Invited to provide detailed advice to the Housing Commission, in particular on options for a referendum on a right to housing in Ireland.
Board member, Modern Studies in Property Law. This is a highly prestigious international property law group, focused on a large conference and a research workshop every two years, as well as a resulting peer-reviewed publication.
External examiner, PhD, University of Stellenbosch - external examiner for 3 PhDs at the University of Stellenbosch
External examiner, PhD, University of Glasgow
External Advisor (Citizen Deliberation), EU Committee of the Regions: I was invited to present and share expertise on the Irish experience of deliberative democracy in constitutional reform processes.
External Advisor, Irish Citizen's Assembly on Biodiversity Loss
Peer-reviewer, Modern Law Review. This is the leading generalist law journal in the UK. I was an invited guest to the annual Chorley Lecture and dinner in 2024 in recognition of my particular contribution as a peer-reviewer for the journal.
External Advisor, Irish Citizen's Assembly on Gender Equality
Mentoring Committee, Association of Law Property and Society, responsibility for leading the association's aim of ensuring early-career and peer to peer mentoring at all levels.
External Advisor, German National Citizen's Assembly (Burgerrat Demokratie). I was interviewed by the German Citizens' Assembly to inform its work on democratic reform. Recording available at: https://soundcloud.com/user-755126245/ergebnisse-des-burgerrats-demokratie
Peer-reviewer, Journal of Law, Property and Society
Peer-reviewer, University of Toronto Law Journal
Fellow, South African Research Chair in Property Law - appointed on the basis of outstanding research in comparative constitutional property law, functions include attending at the Chair to carry out research, delivery of graduate seminars and examination of PhD's.
External reviewer for the South African research funding body, the National Research Foundation. Functions include reviewing and assessing research outputs from individual researchers, and reviewing institutions from a teaching and learning, as well as a research perspective.
Peer-reviewer, monograph proposals, Cambridge University Press
Peer-reviewer. The Conveyancer journal.
Peer-Reviewer, European Property Law Journal
Member, Editorial Board, King's Law Journal
Peer-reviewer, Dublin University Law Journal
National representative for Ireland for the Core Principles of European Expropriation Law and Obligations to climate-proof real estate EU-wide research projects.
Awards and Honours
School winner, TCD Research Supervision Awards
Elected to Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin
Provost's Teaching Award
Accelerated Advancement in the Assistant Professor grade
Laidlaw Scholar Supervisor
Ussher Award for PhD studies
Fulbright Scholar Award
Rodney Overend Educational Trust award for Ph.D. studies
James Murnaghan Prize, The Honorable Society of the King's Inns
Gold Medal Award, TCD
Henry Hunter Hamilton Prize, TCD
Memberships
Member, Society of Legal Scholars, and Co-Editor of the associated peer-reviewed journal, Legal Studies. Legal Studies is a leading international Law journal, which is general rather than specialist in the legal subject-areas that it covers. It is published by CUP and has a current impact factor of 0.7. I was appointed in 2022 to the position of editor following a competitive process run by the Society of Legal Scholars to identify a new editorial team. I am part of a team of 4 co-equal editors of the journal, leading all stages of the peer-review process for articles, liaising with production, and engaging in author and readership outreach.
Director (voluntary), O'Cualann Co-Housing Alliance. This is an innovative co-housing charity and approved housing body, working throughout Ireland to deliver low cost housing for purchase. As a Board Member, I use my legal expertise, particularly on property and housing, to steer the activities of the alliance.
Board Member, Modern Studies in Property Law: Modern Studies in Property Law is the leading UK property law conference, which meets biennially in full conference format, and in workshop format on alternate years. It results in a prestigious peer-reviewed edited collection published by Hart. As a Board Member, I steer the conference activities and also manage a research mentoring programme and support for postgraduate research.
Member, Progressive Property Network. This research group, which was started in Harvard but has expanded its reach internationally, includes the top international property scholars working within the progressive property school of thought, and is focused on sharing and supporting the development of research, and an annual conference. Membership is by invitation only from one of the founding members of the group.
Member, Association of Law, Property and Society, and Mentoring Sub-Committee Lead. This association (ALPS) is one of the top international networks for property research, with year-round activities, as well as an annual conference. I am responsible for facilitating mentoring between senior and early career academics, and peer-to-peer mentoring.
Member, Expert Group on Expropriation: The Expert Group brings together by invitation leading academics and practitioners working in the field of expropriation law to develop good governance standards in expropriation, in particular with a view to securing sustainable development. The Group holds regular international conferences and publishes peer-reviewed edited collections.
Fellow, South African Research Chair in Property Law Group: The Research Chair was the leading centre for property law research in South Africa, which has a central role in crucial debates concerning access to housing and land. As an appointed Fellow, I contributed to its research activities and to its postgraduate programmes, including through teaching and as a PhD examiner.
Member, Resilient Property Theory Network: this research group runs a monthly reading group and annual workshop on cutting edge approaches to property theory.
Member, Irish Association of Law Teachers
Member, International Society of Public Law
Member, Irish Jurisprudence Society