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07th Sep 2018

Supreme Court refuses Eighth Amendment appeal

Rudi Kinsella

Abortion

This means that it can now officially be signed into law.

An appeal challenging the outcome of the Eighth Amendment referendum was refused in the Supreme Court on Friday.

The court dismissed the appeal due to it not meeting constitutional criteria.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed that this decision means that legislation to permit abortion in Ireland is set to be passed by the Oireachtas in the near future.

You can read an excerpt from the official court report below.

“Finally, it is sought to raise the question of the order for costs made against Ms. Jordan. The discretion which both the High Court and the Court of Appeal enjoyed to decline to award costs against Ms. Jordan notwithstanding the fact that she had lost her case undoubtedly exists.

“There is well settled authority on the circumstances in which such a discretion might be exercised in constitutionally related challenges such as those which are involved in this case and the considerations which properly go to the exercise of that discretion. A final judgment in respect of costs involves the exercise of a discretion in accordance with those principles.

“In the absence of there being a stateable argument that the manner in which the exercise of that discretion which occurred in the case in question was wrong in principle, it is clear that the constitutional threshold could not be met. There is no such stateable argument disclosed here.”

The court report in full can be found on courts.ie.

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