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Trinity Centre for Constitutional Governance - a leading centre for constitutional law scholarship and events at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin @tcddublin.bsky.social

Congratulations to @tricondublin.bsky.social Director Prof @aileenkavanagh.bsky.social on winning the Inner Temple (Main Author) Book Prize 2025, awarded triennially as a ‘major prize for outstanding authorship’.

Join us for a @tricondublin.bsky.social seminar on direct democracy in Hungary on Nov 5th at 5.30pm in TCD law School.

10 days left to apply for the @tricondublin.bsky.social New Voices in International Law workshop! We already have some excellent looking submissions! Abstracts welcome from all early career researchers (broadly defined) based on the island of Ireland. Get in touch if you have any questions.

Thanks to @jdamh.bsky.social & @aoifemod.bsky.social for a fascinating discussion of secrets and revelation in international law, chaired by our own Christiane Ahlborn, and comments from @mikebecker.bsky.social, @pearceclancy.bsky.social @suryaroy.bsky.social & ors

Many thanks to Prof Zoltán Pozsár-Szentmiklósy for an eye-opening paper on democratic backsliding in Hungary last night at @tricondublin.bsky.social, and to @benedettalobina.bsky.social & Beatrice Monciunskaite for incisive comments.

Congrats to @tricondublin.bsky.social Director Prof @aileenkavanagh.bsky.social whose paper ‘Keeping it Real in Constitutional Theory’ is ‘Download of the Week’ on the Legal Theory blog, and described by Prof @lsolum.bsky.social as a ‘deep and important paper’.

Paperback is here and, to judge by its cover, it’s great! It can be yours for €37.50 including shipping if you want 2026 to be your year of law and literature!

📢The 2026 ICON•S Annual Conference Call for Submissions is out! Join us in #Dublin from June 29 – July 1, 2026! Read the 🧵for details ⬇️

Huge thanks to @lsolum.bsky.social for ‘highly recommending’ my paper on living constitutionalism now available on SSRN. That’s made my day! The paper is part of a new Research Handbook on Constitutional Interpretation out now with Edward Elgar.

Looking forward to chairing this @tricondublin.bsky.social seminar tomorrow on direct democracy in Hungary with visiting speaker Prof Zoltán Pozsár-Szentmiklósy with commentators @benedettalobina.bsky.social & Prof Beatrice Monciunskaite.

Just in time for the Christmas, you can preorder the paperback copy of my book! It won’t arrive until after Christmas, which I know will disappoint many, but a printout of a preorder is often an even better stocking filler than a book. 20% off with code below! www.routledge.com/Pragmatism-L...

Overjoyed that my book The Collaborative Constitution @cambup-law.cambridge.org has won The Inner Temple Main Author Book Prize 2025! Great to celebrate with my fellow finalists Sean Coyle, Liron Schmilovitz & @vmantouvalou.bsky.social & the New Author winner Brooke Marshall.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: @tcddublin.bsky.social Law School & @tricondublin.bsky.social are organising an ECR workshop for PhD researchers, postdocs, and junior academic staff working on international law on the island of Ireland (north & south). Send your abstracts in by 30 January!

Join us for a @tricondublin.bsky.social seminar on direct democracy in Hungary on Nov 5th at 5.30pm in TCD law School.

Download of the Week: “Keeping it Real in Constitutional Theory” by Kavanagh The Download of the Week is Keeping it Real in Constitutional Theory by Aileen Kavanagh. Here is the abstract: In constitutional theory, we are familiar with the claim that a good theory must fit and justify…

Kavanagh on Living Collaborative Constitutionalism Aileen Kavanagh (Trinity College (Dublin)) has posted The Living Constitution in Collaborative Context on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this paper, I argue that living constitutionalism (i.e. a dynamic form of constitutional interpretation where…

The Download of the Week is Keeping it Real in Constitutional Theory by Aileen Kavanagh. Here is the abstract: In constitutional theory, we are familiar with the claim that a good theory must fit and justify constitutional practice. However, the criterion of 'fit' sometimes gets lost in the quest to provide a bold normative theory about what constitutional should be. Using the debate about the legitimacy of constitutional judicial review as an example, this article warns against a problematic disjuncture between theory and practice in the domain of constitutional law.

Aileen Kavanagh (Trinity College (Dublin)) has posted The Living Constitution in Collaborative Context on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this paper, I argue that living constitutionalism (i.e. a dynamic form of constitutional interpretation where courts develop, update, and change constitutional meaning over time) is both constitutionally legitimate and normatively desirable. In doing so, however, I emphasise that the legitimacy of living constitutionalism depends crucially on the limits of dynamic judicial interpretation.