The curious case of socio-economic rights (preventing the rational? socio-economic rights and the phenomenon of blaming the victim, Irish style)

This paper examines the influence of political culture upon constitutional reasoning and deliberation, specifically with regard to answering the question : why have socioeconomic rights not received a more effective protection in the Irish Constitution? Beyond the flotsam and jetsam of crusades and campaigns, I suggest, the politics of the Irish Constitution were and remain, intellectual, moral and ontological. What follows therefore represents a considered defence of this position, primarily with a view to demonstrating the need for a politico-sociological examination of the constitution's development. Drawing on the classic account of constitutional change, namely Basil Chubb's The Politics of the Irish Constitution (1991), I question the
conventionally static depiction of the constitution's relationship to social justice concerns. Subsequently, I present an alternative way of approaching this relationship provided by Steven Lukes and HLA Hart, an approach that calls our attention to the underlying battle of ideas concerning justice, morality and the source of human rights. Finally, in light of this approach, I re-evaluate just one of the contributions to the debate on constitutional reform, namely Vincent Grogan's 'The Constitution and the Natural Law'. In demonstrating the implicit assumptions of Grogan's thesis, this
paper aims to make clear the potential of this ideational perspective for opening
conventional analysis to significant reconsideration.