Deliberative Minipublics as an Instrument of Legal Reform? The Impact of the Citizens’ Assembly on the Reform of Ireland’s Abortion Law

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. The Irish approach to minipublic deliberation in the democratic process has garnered an extraordinary level of international attention, and the role of the Citizens’ Assembly in the reform of the law on abortion seems to carry particular resonance. Many of the claims made about the Irish experience in the abortion case, however, overlook important contextual factors and lack an empirical basis. This study seeks to fill a serious gap in the literature on the Assembly’s impact in the abortion case: it is, to the author’s knowledge, the most comprehensive empirical analysis to date of the formation of the Assembly’s recommendations and their path through the entire political process to enactment as law. The study seeks to provide novel insights into the role played by the Irish Citizens’ Assembly in the reform of the law on abortion. It presents the Irish Citizens’ Assembly in the abortion case as illustrative of a minipublic in the constitutional reform context being a tool of consensus-clarification, not consensus-creation and as demonstrating the power of a minipublic to set the agenda for parliament in respect of a major – and divisive – legislative reform. The study also highlights the critical importance of institutional design in creating a process in which a minipublic can play a highly impactful role in a legal change. In this way, the study presents important lessons for both empirical scholars and policy-makers seeking to incorporate minipublic deliberation in a more meaningful way in public decision-making processes in the future.