Deliberative Minipublics and Constitutional Change

We're excited to announce that we'll be hosting a webinar on November 13th with Dr Seána Glennon, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law. Dr Glennon will be speaking about the role that deliberative minipublics have played in shaping major constitutional reforms in Ireland and about the role that they could potentially play in Canada. The full lecture description is provided below, and you can register by clicking the button on the right.

Lecture Synopsis:

The contemporary crisis of democracy has provoked a surge of interest among scholars and policymakers in novel methods of involving citizens more meaningfully in shaping constitutional, legal and policy changes. To this end, the use of deliberative minipublics (representative samples of ordinary citizens, chosen by lot, who deliberate together and make proposals for legal and policy reform) is on the rise around the world. Ireland in particular stands out as a trailblazer internationally in the use of these novel democratic innovations, in the form of citizens’ assemblies, in the constitutional and legislative reform arena.

In this lecture, Dr Seána Glennon will discuss the impact of the Citizens’ Assembly on the reform of the law on abortion in Ireland, from both a constitutional and legislative perspective. She will present an account of a highly impactful citizen process, in which a deeply polarising issue was deliberated upon by a group of ordinary citizens, who produced a detailed set of recommendations for constitutional and legislative reform which were largely actioned by the political class and ultimately enacted into law. Dr Glennon will draw lessons from the Irish experience that are capable of wider application, shedding light on the understudied question of how novel, citizen-centred deliberative structures impact on formal public law processes. Finally, Dr Glennon will consider the case for revisiting the use of minipublics in Canada as a way of invigorating Canadian democracy and engaging citizens more meaningfully in shaping legal and policy reforms.