‘See No Evil,Hear No Evil,Speak No Evil’: The Irish Referendum and Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

This article considers the appropriateness of ratifying EU Treaties by referendum and challenges the assumption as to the democratic nature of referenda when considering the complexity of legal documents such as the Constitutional Treaty or the Lisbon Treaty. Like the 2005 referenda on the Constitutional Treaty, the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon illustrates the lack of information possessed by the voters, as well as their misconceptions as to the contents of the Treaty submitted to their approval. This article begins by examining the scope of the Irish Government's discretion in deciding to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, as a result of the Crotty ruling. It then analyses the arguments used during the referendum campaign and confronts them with the text of the Treaty, before considering the reasons given by the electorate in voting for or against ratification of the Treaty.