“What needs to be done?”1 Susan Denham, Ireland's great judicial reformer

Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair

Chapter 9 in Elgar Companion to Female Chief Justices in Comparative Perspective, 2026, pp 193-210 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores the legacy of Susan Denham, Ireland's first female Supreme Court judge and first female Chief Justice. Known for her typically understated judicial demeanour, Denham spearheaded transformative reforms within the Irish legal system, ushering in a culture of judicial modernisation, most notably by the establishment of the Court of Appeal and the creation of the Courts Service. Her jurisprudential contributions were marked by clear, robust judgments and a willingness to innovate, often reflected in her notable dissenting judgments. Beyond the courtroom, Denham was a skilled negotiator and crisis manager and played a pivotal role during several constitutional crises, including the 2011 judicial pay dispute, and later, in retirement, leading the high-profile review into a sitting Supreme Court judge's conduct during the “Golfgate” scandal. The chapter contends that Denham's steady leadership and commitment to systemic reform left a deep, if underappreciated, imprint on the Irish legal landscape.

Keywords: Ireland; Susan Denham; Institutional reform; Judicial ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035308637
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035308644.00015 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22158_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().