Dr Donal Coffey
Biography
Donal joined the school of law as an Assistant Professor in Law in August 2020.
In January 2023, Donal was appointed an Affiliate Researcher of the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt am Main.
Donal's research interests are in the fields of public law and legal history. His interests are particularly in the fields of contemporary constitutional law and comparative constitutional history, with a specific interest in the constitutional history of the British Empire.
His PhD, completed in University College Dublin, was on Irish constitutional history in the 1930s. He subsequently published two books on this period - Drafting the Irish Constitution 1935-1937 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Constitutionalism in Ireland, 1932-1938 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). He has published articles in the fields of international law, constitutional law, and legal history in peer-reviewed journals such as the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the Journal of Legal History, Law and History Review, the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, the Irish Jurist, among others.
Prior to joining the law school, Donal was a Senior Research Fellow in the Max Planck Institut for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He worked as a lecturer in the United Kingdom, in the University of Surrey, and the University of Portsmouth.
His work has been cited by the House of Commons library, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Irish Law Reform Commission, and by
the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe.
In 2022, Donal's work on the possible suspension and expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe was relied upon by the Sangiin, the Legislative Upper House in Japan.
Research Interests
Donal's research interests are in the fields of Irish public law, comparative constitutional law, and legal history.
In Irish public law, Donal has published on the interaction between rights provisions and emergency powers, and the separation of powers with specific reference to the judicial branch.
In the field of comparative constitutional law, Donal is interested in the formation, maintenance, and failure of constitutional systems, and what these case studies teach us about constitutional design, culture, and more broadly about the limits of constitutional law itself.
In the field of legal history, Donal is interested in the legal history of the British Empire. Donal has published articles on the doctrine of secession in the Commonwealth, the Anglo-Irish oath controversy of 1932, and the contours of British constitutional law in the inter-War period. Donal is interested in the process of decolonisation from a constitutional point of view.
Donal also researches and publishes on Irish constitutional history. Donal has written two monographs about Irish constitutional history in the 1930s, as well as chapters on topics such as the judiciary in the Irish Free State and the development of the judicial branch in the Free State.
Book
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Donal K. Coffey (2022) 'Pakistan - Supreme Court strikes down Prorogation of National Assembly'. Public Law, . | |
| 2022 | Donal K. Coffey (2022) 'The Drafting of the Constitution of the Union of Burma in 1947: Dominion Status, Indo–Burmese Relations, and the Irish Example'. Law and History Review, . | |
| 2020 | Donal K. Coffey (2020) 'Constitutional law and empire in interwar Britain: universities, liberty, nationality and parliamentary supremacy'. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, . [Link] [Full-Text] | |
| 2019 | Donal K. Coffey (2019) 'The Influence of the Weimar Constitution on the Common Law World'. Rechtsgeschichte, . [Full-Text] | |
| 2019 | Kanstantin Dzehtsiarou and Donal K. Coffey (2019) 'Suspension and Expulsion of Members of the Council of Europe: Difficult Decisions in Troubled Times'. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, . [Full-Text] | |
| 2018 | Donal K. Coffey (2018) 'The Right to Shoot Himself: Secession in the British Commonwealth of Nations'. Journal of Legal History, . | |
| 2016 | Donal K. Coffey (2016) '1916, 1921 and the 'Destruction of the Legal Unity of the British Empire''. Dublin University Law Journal, . | |
| 2016 | Donal K. Coffey (2016) 'The Commonwealth and the Oath of Allegiance Crisis: A Study in Inter-War Commonwealth Relations'. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, . | |
| 2015 | Donal K. Coffey and Charlie Eastaugh (2015) 'Don’t Stop Me Now (Without Reasonable Suspicion)'. King's Law Journal, . | |
| 2012 | Donal K. Coffey (2012) 'The Need for a New Constitution: Irish Constitutional Change 1932 – 1935'. Irish Jurist, . | |
| 2011 | Donal K Coffey (2011) 'Discussion: Custom and Living Law'. Jurisprudence, . https://doi.org/10.1080/20403313.2012.11423536 | |
| 2011 | Donal K. Coffey (2011) 'The Judiciary of the Irish Free State'. Dublin University Law Journal, . | |
| 2009 | Donal K. Coffey (2009) 'British, Commonwealth, and Irish responses to the abdication of King Edward VIII'. Irish Jurist, . |
Book Chapter
Other Journal
Conference Contribution
Book Review
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.
Teaching Interests
Constitutional law, administrative law, modern legal history, legal history of empires.