John M Kelly lecture 2025 delivered by Professor Kim Scheppele of Princeton
L to R) Prof Laurent Pech, Prof Kim Scheppele, Mr Rossa Fanning SC (Attorney General) and Ms Justice Niamh Hyland (Court of Appeal)
UCD Sutherland School of Law was delighted to welcome Professor Kim Scheppele to deliver the 2025 John M Kelly Memorial Lecture in early April. Her lecture title was:
'Democracy in Danger: The Global Challenge of Autocratic Legalism'.
This lecture is the most prestigious event in the Sutherland School of Law’s calendar and we were especially pleased that Professor Scheppele chose such a topical and highly relevant theme for the 2025 lecture.
Professor Scheppele is a highly regarded authority on the subject of subject of constitutional law and is widely published in the area. She is the Laurance S Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and Director of the Program in Law and Normative Thinking at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Professor Scheppele's work focuses on the intersection of constitutional and transnational law, particularly in constitutional systems under stress.
In front of a large audience of distinguished guests, alumni, staff and students, Professor Scheppele delivered a fascinating lecture where she discussed worldwide threats to democracy. She showed how democracy has come under attack around the world, and took the audience through what she calls the “autocratic legalistic playbook” to demonstrate how entrenched law can prevent the restoration of democracy. She argued that we need a new approach to thinking about the rule of law in order to escape from the autocratic trap, one that sets the restoration of democracy rather than the blind adherence to legality as the normative standard. She posited that while countries like Poland, Brazil, Ecuador and briefly the United States found some respite from the autocratic slide through elections that restored rule-of-law governments to power, none of the countries that has experienced a serious autocratic episode has been able to fully recover, precisely because the aspirational autocrats have engaged in legal entrenchment. Her thought-provoking lecture attracted a wide audience and gave rise to extensive discussion at the reception which followed.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell and the Attorney General, Mr Rossa Fanning SC
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell, an alumnus of the school, introduced Professor Scheppele. The Chief Justice is a former student of John Kelly’s from UCD and also delivered a lecture in the series in 2016. Professor Laurent Pech, Dean of Law began the evening’s proceedings by welcoming the Chief Justice, the Kelly Family and the audience in attendance.
The audience of academics, students, practitioners and members of the judiciary included members of Professor John M Kelly’s family. Guests at the lecture included the Registrar and Deputy President of UCD, Prof Colin Scott and many notable alumni including the Attorney General, Mr Rossa Fanning. The lecture honours the memory of Professor Kelly, (1931-1991) who was Professor of Jurisprudence and editor of the Irish Jurist as well as a government minister and Attorney General.
A recording of the Professor Scheppele's John M Kelly Lecture 2025 can be viewed (opens in a new window)at this link.
(L to R) Prof Colin Scott, Prof Niamh Moore Cherry, Prof Scheppele and Prof Laurent Pech
(L to R) Mr Justice Donald Binchy (Court of Appeal), (lecture guest), Nick Kelly and Prof Oonagh Breen
(L to R) Prof Imelda Maher, Judge Patrick McCarthy with Prof Colin Scott