Legal academics set up fact-based Eighth Amendment website

Two senior academics at University of Birmingham School of Law have launched a website that aims to share accurate information about the Eighth Amendment.

Senior lecturer Máiréad Enright, who co-founded the new website alongside Professor Fiona de Londras, told Irish Legal News it was set up “because we were concerned at some of the misreporting of basic legal issues arising from the referendum in a range of media sources”.

Ms Enright said: “We think that it is important that people have free and open access to detailed, clear and accurate explanation of the relevant law, so that they can make an informed decision when they vote.

“We don’t think that it is necessary to misrepresent the law in Ireland, or in other countries, in order to participate effectively in the referendum debate.”

Both Ms Enright and Professor de Londras are in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment and set out a policy argument to that effect in their recent book, Repealing the 8th.

However, Ms Enright said aboutthe8th.com “is different because it does not seek to make any particular argument - it simply sets out accurate answers to some of the questions which we have seen in the Irish media. We hope that it will be particularly useful to undecided voters.”