Constitutional Antecedents Reconsidered: Rethinking the Irish Influence on the Constitution of India

Authors

• Gerard Hogan, Supreme Court of Ireland

Abstract

The conventional view regarding the origins of the Constitution of India 1950 appears to be that it is largely derived from the colonial-era Government of India Act 1935. While this view may be correct so far as the quantity of individual articles for which there is a correspondence between the two documents is concerned, this article questions whether the underlying thesis is in fact entirely correct. The author contends, by contrast, that the Irish Constitution has, if anything, an even more profound influence on the drafting, contents, and structure of the Indian Constitution, particularly in those areas where that Constitution went in a new direction, namely, fundamental rights and judicial review of legislation. While the Irish influence on the Directive Principles of State Policy is admittedly widely acknowledged, what appears to be less well known is the extent to which the Indian Constitution echoes key features of its Irish counterpart, not least many of the innovatory features of the latter. The author seeks to explore some of these themes with particular reference to the Directive Principles, judicial review of legislation, and the amendment power.

Recommended Citation

Hogan, Gerard (2026) "Constitutional Antecedents Reconsidered: Rethinking the Irish Influence on the Constitution of India," National Law School Journal: Vol. 20: Iss. 1, Article 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55496/PBXT2343
Available at: https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsj/vol20/iss1/1

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.55496/PBXT2343