Biography
Dr David Kenny is an Associate Professor of Law in the Law School, teaching Irish and comparative constitutional law, conflict of laws, critical legal theory and law and literature. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Harvard Law School, and the Honourable Society of the King's Inns, and is an alumnus of the US State Department's Fulbright programme. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2021.
Dr Kenny's research specialises in Irish and comparative constitutional law. He is co-author of the 5th edition of Kelly: the Irish Constitution, the leading text on Irish Constitutional Law, as well as many peer-reviewed articles in leading national and international journals on topics such as proportionality, constitutional culture, referendums, and executive branch legal advisors, and the constitutional implications of Brexit for Ireland. He also researches widely in the field of law and literature. He is currently writing a book drawing together law, literature, and philosophical pragmatism entitled 'Pragmatism in Law and Literature', to be published by Routledge in 2024.
Dr Kenny has given expert evidence on constitutional issues to the Citizen's Assembly, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Defence, and the Oireachtas Special Covid-19 Committee. He was a member of the Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland which reported in 2021, convened by the Constitution Unit of University College London and supported by funding from the British Academy and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
He served as coordinator of the State Governance section of the Trinity College Dublin Covid-19 Legal Observatory and co-authored a major report on the human rights impact of COVID-19 response measures for the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in 2021. He served as a facilitator for the Northern Ireland Assembly Ad Hoc Committee on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. He also worked with the Centre of Constitutional Democracy at IU Bloomington and the US National Committee on North Korea in 2021 to compile a report on constitutionalism on the Korean Peninsula.
He is currently a co-ordinator of NSLMap, a project funded by the Shared Island United to map the convergences and divergences in various areas of law between Ireland and Northern Ireland. He has also, since 2020, worked with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to develop a policy on constitutional change in respect of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Dr Kenny currently teaches Constitutional Law; Critical Perspectives on Law; Conflict of Laws; and Law and Literature. He was a recipient of the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2015.
Dr Kenny regularly contributed to media discussion of constitutional issues, referendums, and Brexit, having written articles in the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and theJournal.ie, and appearing on Morning Ireland, the Six One News, Prime Time, Sky News and the BBC, amongst others. He is open to media queries on matters of Irish or international constitutional law.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Ireland in, editor(s)Jaakko Husa, Jan Smits, Catherine Valcke , Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law (forthcoming), Edward Elgar, 2023, [David Kenny]
Interpretation in law and literature in, editor(s)Adam Hanna and Eugene McNulty , Law and Literature: The Irish Case (forthcoming), Manchester University Press, 2022, [Tom Hickey and David Kenny ]
David Kenny, The Human Pared Away: Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell as an Archetype of Legal Pragmatism , Law and Literature, 43, (1), 2022, p109 - 139
David Kenny and Lauryn Musgrove McCann, Directive Principles, Political Constitutionalism, and Constitutional Culture: the case of Ireland's failed Directive Principles of Social Policy, European Constitutional Law Review (forthcoming), 2022
Are the people the masters? Constitutional Referendums in Ireland in, editor(s)Richard Albert and Richard Stacey , The Legality and Legitimacy of Referendums., Oxford University Press, 2022, pp264 - 292, [David Kenny and Aileen Kavanagh]
David Kenny, Examining Constitutional Culture: Assisted Suicide In Ireland And Canada, Journal of Comparative Law, 17, (1), 2022, p85 - 115
Conor Casey and David Kenny, The Gatekeepers: Executive Lawyers and the Executive Power in Comparative Constitutional Law, International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON) FORTHCOMING, 2022
Laura Cahillane and David Kenny, Lessons from Ireland's 2020 Judicial Conduct Controversy., Common Law World Review, 51, (1-2), 2022, p24 - 24
Sovereignty and Federalism in, editor(s)Guerino D'Ignazio , The Constitutional System of the United States of America (forthcoming), Wolters Kluwer, 2022, pp133 - 153, [David Kenny and Andrea Pin]
Religion and Law in Ireland and Northern Ireland in, editor(s)Andrew Holmes and Gladys Ganiel , Oxford Handbook of Religion in Modern Ireland (FORTHCOMING), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022, [Christopher McCrudden, Oran Doyle, and David Kenny]
Jurisdiction, Choice of law, and enforcement of judgments in, editor(s)Christopher McCrudden , The Law and Practice of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Cambridge , Cambridge University Press, 2022, pp296 - 307, [David Kenny]
Oran Doyle, David Kenny, Christopher McCrudden, The Franchise in Irish Unification Referendums, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 32, (2), 2021, p182 - 213
David Kenny and Conor Casey, How liberty dies in a galaxy far, far away: Star Wars, democratic decay, and weak executives, Law and Literature, 2021, p1 - 27
Conor Casey and David Kenny, Ireland-COVID-19 response raises some rule of law concerns, Public Law, April, 2021, p480 - 483
How our courts decide: the Decision-making Processes of Supreme Administrative Courts in, editor(s)ACA-Europe , Supreme Administrative Courts' Jurisprudence in Europe, Germany, GH Beck, 2021, pp43-87 - [Mr Justice Frank Clarke, David Kenny, Aine Ryall]
Conor Casey, Oran Doyle, and David Kenny, The Irish State's COVID-19 Response and the Rule of Law: Causes for Concern, Studies, 440, (Winter ), 2021, p446 - 457
The Constitutional Politics of a United Ireland in, editor(s)Oran Doyle, Aileen McHarg, Jo Murkins , Constitutions Under Pressure: The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the UK, Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp129 - 152, [Oran Doyle, David Kenny, Christopher McCrudden]
The Risks of Referendums: "Referendum culture" in Ireland as a solution? in, editor(s)Maria Cahill, Colm Ó Cinnéide, Conor O'Mahony, Sean Ó Conaill , Constitutional Change and Popular Sovereignty in Ireland , Routledge, 2021, pp198 - 223, [David Kenny]
David Kenny, 'Love mounts to the throne with law': Citizenship in Northern Ireland and Seamus Heaney's Antigone, Law and Humanities, 15, (2), 2021, p195 - 218
David Kenny and Conor Casey, The Resilience of Executive Dominance in Westminster Systems: Ireland 2016-2019, Public Law , (April), 2021, p335 - 374
Alan Renwick, Oran Doyle, John Garry, Paul Gillespie, Cathy Gormley-Heenan, Katy Hayward, Robert Hazell, David Kenny, Christopher McCrudden, Brendan O'Leary, Etain Tannam, Alan Whysall , Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland: Final Report, London, Constitution Unit, University College London, May, 2021, p1 - 259
Ireland in, editor(s)Luís Roberto Barroso and Richard Albert , The 2020 International Review of Constitutional Reform, Texas, Program on Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, 2021, pp153 - 157, [Conor Casey and David Kenny]
Sovranità e Federalismo (Sovereignty and Federalism) in, editor(s)Guerino D'Ignazio , Il Sistema Costituzionale delgi Stati Uniti d'America (The Constitutional System of the United States of America) , Wolters Kluwer, 2020, pp175 - 202, [David Kenny and Andrea Pin]
David Kenny, Review of The Triangular Constitution by Tom Flynn , Common Law World Review, 49, (1), 2020, p92-106
David Kenny and Conor Casey, Shadow Constitutional Review: The Dark Side of Pre-Enactment Political Review in Ireland and Japan, International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON), 18, (1), 2020, p51 - 77
David Kenny and Conor Casey, A One Person Supreme Court? The Attorney General, constitutional advice to government, and the case for transparency, Dublin University Law Journal , 42, (1), 2020, p90 - 118
David Kenny, The virtues of unprincipled constitutional compromises: Church and State in the Irish Constitution, European Constitutional Law Review, 16, (3), 2020, p417 - 439
Ireland in, editor(s)Carsten Gerner-Beuerle, Federico M Mucciarelli, Edmund Schuster and Mathias Sims , The Private International Law of Companies in the European Union, Munich, CH Beck, 2019, pp461 - 488, [Blanaid Clarke and David Kenny]
The Failed Referendum to Abolish the Ireland's Senate: Rejecting Unicameralism in a Small and Relatively Homogenous Country in, editor(s)Richard Albert, Antonia Baraggia, Cristina Fasone , Constitutional Reform of National Legislatures Bicameralism under Pressure, Edward Elgar, 2019, pp163 - 182, [David Kenny]
David Kenny, Criminal Assets Bureau v Murphy - just the exclusionary rule in a civil context, or a new approach to unconstitutionality in the criminal process?, Irish Supreme Court Review , 1, (1), 2019, p187 - 204
David Kenny, Abortion, The Irish Constitution, and Constitutional Change, Revista de Investigações Constitucionais / Brazilian Journal of Constitutional Research , 5, (3), 2018, p257 - 275
David Kenny, Proportionality and the Inevitability of the Local: a comparative localist analysis of Canada and Ireland, American Journal of Comparative Law, 66, (3), 2018, p537 - 578
GW Hogan, GF Whyte, D Kenny, R Walsh, Kelly: The Irish Constitution, Fifth edition, Dublin, Bloomsbury Professional, 2018, 1 - 2765pp
Richard Albert and David Kenny , The challenges of constitutional silence: Doctrine, theory, and applications, International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON), 2018, p880 - 886
Constitutional Change and Interest Group Politics: Ireland's Children's Rights Amendment in, editor(s)Richard Albert, Xenophon Contiades, Alkmene Fotiadou , The Foundations and Tradition of Constitutional Amendment, Hart Publishing, 2017, pp199 - 218, [Oran Doyle and David Kenny]
Merit, Diversity, And Interpretive Communities: The (Non-Party) Politics Of Judicial Appointments And Constitutional Adjudication in, editor(s)Laura Cahillane, Tom Hickey, James Gallen , Politics, Judges, and the Irish Constitution, Manchester University Press, 2017, pp136 - 149, [David Kenny]
Choice-of-Court Agreements, the Italian Torpedo, and the Recast of the Brussels I Regulation (republication) in, editor(s)Wendy Collins Perdue , Procedure and Private International Law, Edward Elgar, 2017, pp197 - 209, [David Kenny and Rosemary Hennigan]
David Kenny, - "Always, inevitably local: Ireland's strange populism and the trouble with theory", Jean Monnet Paper Series ; , Populism and Public Law , NYU Law School, September 2017, edited by Grainne de Burca and Joseph Weiler , (7), NYU, 2017
David Kenny, Remedial Innovation, Constitutional Culture, and the Supreme Court at a Crossroads, Dublin University Law Journal, 40(2), 2017, p85 - 106
David Kenny, Politics all the way down: originalism as rhetoric, Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo (DPCE) Online, 31, (3), 2017, p661 - 667
David Kenny and Liz Heffernan, Peer Observation of Teaching, Dublin University Law Journal, 2017, p205 - 216
Defamation and Privacy and the Rome II Regulation in, editor(s)Peter Stone and Youseph Farah , Research Handbook on the Conflict of Laws, Elgar, 2015, pp315 - 343, [David Kenny and Liz Heffernan]
Gerard Hogan, David Kenny and Rachael Walsh, An Anthology of Unconstitutionality, Irish Jurist, (54), 2015, p1 - 30
David Kenny and Rosemary Hennigan, Choice of Court Agreements, the Italian Torpedo, and the Recast of the Brussels I Regulation: a possible snag, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 64, (1), 2015, p197 - 209
David Kenny, A Review of Neil Walker's "Intimation of Global Law", by Neil Walker , American Journal of Comparative Law, 2015, p1053-1060
David Kenny, Conventions in Judicial Decisionmaking: Epistemology and the Limits of Critical Self Consciousness, Dublin University Law Journal, 38, (2), 2015, p432 - 441
David Kenny, Proportionality, the Burden of Proof, and Some Signs of Reconsideration, Irish Jurist, 52, 2014, p141 - 152
David Kenny, Grounding Constitutional Remedies in Reality: the Case for As-Applied Constitutional Challenges in Ireland, Dublin University Law Journal, 35, 2014, p53 - 77
David Kenny, Re Flightlease: The 'Real And Substantial Connection' Test For Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments Fails To Take Flight In Ireland, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 63, (1), 2014, p197 - 212
David Kenny, Recent Developments in the Right of the Person in Article 40.3: Fleming v Ireland and the Spectre of Unenumerated Rights, Dublin University Law Journal, 2013, (36), 2013, p322 - 341
The Separation of Powers and Remedies: The Legislative Power and Remedies for Unconstitutional Legislation in Comparative Perspective in, editor(s)Eoin Carolan , The Constitution of Ireland: Perspectives and Prospects, Dublin, Bloomsbury Professional, 2012, pp191 - 216, [David Kenny]
David Kenny, Fair Procedures in Irish Administrative Law: Towards a Constitutional Duty to Act Fairly in Dellway Investments v NAMA, Dublin University Law Journal, 34, 2011, p47 - 73
David Kenny, A Dormant Doctrine of Overbreadth: Abstract Review and Ius Tertii in Irish Proportionality Analysis, Dublin University Law Journal, 32, 2010, p25 - 50
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
David Kenny, Conor Casey, Andrea Mulligan, Public Health Law During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ireland, Chapter 1: Public Health Governance: The Role of NPHET , Dublin, COVID 19 Law and Human Rights Observatory, 2021, p11 - 28
Conor Casey, Oran Doyle, David Kenny, Donna Lyons, Ireland's Emergency Powers During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dublin, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission , February, 2021, p1 - 104
David Kenny, Technical Report for the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission-Protecting Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Irish Legal Order, August, 2020, 1-40
Renwick, Whysall et al, Interim Report of Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland (forthcoming), Constitution Unit, UCL, October , 2020
David Kenny and Eoin Daly, Report on the Constitutional Limits of the "Money Message" Procedure under Article 17.2 of the Constitution of Ireland, May, 2019, 1-20
Frank Clarke, David Kenny, Aine Ryall, How Courts Decide: adjudicative process of Supreme Administrative Courts, ACA (association of Supreme Administrative Courts) Europe, 2019
David Kenny and Rosemary Hennigan, In Two Minds: Atticus Finch and the Limits of Law, Dublin Review of Books, (5), 2016
David Kenny, Goshawk Dedicated Ltd v Life Receivables Ireland Ltd - Jurisdiction, Lis Alibi Pendens and Problematic Use of the Brussels Regime, Trinity College Law Review, 12, 2009, p1-
Research Expertise
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin
Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching
Ussher Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin
Fulbright Scholar
Memberships
Board Member and Supervising Lawyer, Irish Innocence Project