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Chief Justice awarded DCU honorary doctorate

Dublin City University has conferred the award of Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) on Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell (24 October).

In his citation Dr Tom Hickey (DCU associate professor at the School of Law and Government) said: “Judge O’Donnell has a process-based, and legitimacy-oriented judicial philosophy."

Lawyerly virtues

“It is a philosophy informed by lawyerly virtues such as attention to legal and factual detail; fidelity, but not mindless devotion, to legal and constitutional text; and institutional, as well as personal intellectual, humility – manifested, for example, by an aversion to the use of moral rhetoric in judgments handed down by courts of law,” the citation continued.

No judge had contributed more to the development and refinement of foundational constitutional doctrine, he added.

Honour

Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell said: “I am conscious that this honour is not just personal, but also reflects the fact that in 2024 we are celebrating 100 years of an independent Irish legal system, which can be dated back to the enactment of the Courts of Justice Act 1924.”

He said that the process of commemorating and celebrating this centenary had been a valuable and instructive one.

“Connecting again with the spirit of that turbulent and formative period Ireland’s history helps us to recognise something that was apparent then, and has come increasingly into focus now: that is that a functioning legal system is an essential element in a rights-based democracy with a separation of powers enforced by the judicial branch,” he said.

Vital component

“That operates not simply at the elevated constitutional level, but also at the most basic level, that the administration of justice in ordinary courts – day in, day out –  is a vital component of a modern rights based democracy.

“And that is important for everyone, not just lawyers,” he said.

DCU President Prof Daire Keogh said that Mr Justice O’Donnell had made “an extraordinary contribution to Irish constitutional law and to our country’s independent courts system”.

The Chief Justice joins noted figures from politics, sport, literature and industry in receiving this award from DCU, including artist Louis le Brocquy, rugby player Brian O’Driscoll, former President Mary Robinson and former Chief Justice Susan Denham.

Born in Belfast, Mr Justice O'Donnell was educated at St Mary's CBS in Belfast, UCD (BCL), King's Inns (BL) and the University of Virginia in the US (LLM).

He was called to the Bar of Ireland in 1982, and to the Bar in the North in 1989.

He became a Senior Counsel in 1995, and has practised in all courts in Ireland, the North, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

He is known for his expertise in constitutional law, frequently appearing on behalf of the State in major cases in that field. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2010.

O'Donnell was a member of the Law Reform Commission from 2005 to 2012.

His late father, Lord Justice Turlough O'Donnell, was a judge of the High Court of in the North from 1971-1979, and a judge of the Court of Appeal there from 1979-1990.

Justice O’Donnell was appointed as Chief Justice of Ireland in 2021.