Dr. Rachael Walsh

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.

  Constitutional Law   Environmental Law   Land Law   Planning Law   Property Law

I am a recognised leader in 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 housing, designing and implementing climate mitigation measures, and restoring trust in democracy. Accordingly, my research has wide-reaching relevance, reflected in its selection for the Provost's Annual Review (2019). Tension between property rights and collective interests underpins regulatory responses to social problems, with governments regularly citing property rights as a barrier to change. Building on previous publications in leading peer-reviewed journals, in Property and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action (CUP, 2021), I challenge this claim. I show how property rights and social justice can be mediated in a way that does not impede progressive reforms. I also addressed this issue, as well as other constitutional law problems, as a co-author of Kelly: The Irish Constitution (Bloomsbury, 2018). This treatise is recognised as providing authoritative analysis of Irish constitutional law and is regularly cited by the Supreme Court. Arising out of my role as constitutional law advisor to the Irish Citizens' Assembly, my research also explores the role that citizens play in constitutional change. This scholarship, published in leading international peer-reviewed journals such as the International Constitutional Law Journal and the European Constitutional Law Review, responds to international interest in Ireland as a leader in deliberative democracy. I advised the German National Citizens' Assembly and the EU Committee of the Regions amongst others on the topic. In addition, I have a strong funding record. For example, I was part of the team that secured c. €40,000 in funding for the COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory in the Dean of Research's COVID-19 Response call. I led the Law School's involvement in the H2020 RESILENS project, which was awarded €4,091,842.50 in EU FP7 funding to develop tools for the creation and maintenance of resilient critical infrastructure.