Attorney General v X: Commentary and Feminist Judgment
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Editors
Enright, M
McCandless, J
O'Donoghue, A
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Journal
Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments: Judges' Troubles and the Politics of Gendered Identity
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The commentary considers the feminist judgment as a exercise in progressive constitutionalism addressing gendered harms. The feminist judgment, an imagined Supreme Court judgment in Attorney General v X and others [1992] 1 IR 1 (IESC),.addresses the question of abortion’s permissibility under the Irish Constitution through a feminist approach to constitutional rights, legal method and socio-legal knowledge. The legal test adopted for determining when an abortion is constitutionally permissible is when carrying a pregnancy is an impracticable burden on a woman’s life. This test is substantially different from the one adopted in the actual X case, that a woman may terminate a pregnancy when there is a real and substantial risk to her life, as distinct from her health. Among other things, it avoids the bright line distinctions between life and health which have been problematic for pregnant women since X, including Ms A, Ms B, Ms C, Ms D1, Ms D2, Savita Halappanavar, Michelle Harte and Ms Y, and their health care providers.
Authors
Fletcher, R; McGuinness, SCollections
- Department of Law [848]