The so-called ‘Constitution of 1782’ has always been an important symbol in Irish history. By amending Poyning’s Law and repealing the Declaratory Act, the changes of 1782–83 meant that the Irish House of Lords regained its judicial functions, and the Irish Parliament could initiate its own legislation. But whether these changes constitute a significant constitutional change which touched a ‘principal part of a constitutional framework’ and raised ‘an important question of principle’ is necessary to determine. By analysing the economic legislation of the Irish Parliament, in particular the legislation on infrastructure, linen laws and the Dublin Paving Board, this chapter argues that the legislative independence did not influence the subsequent legislation of Grattan’s Parliament. The significance of the constitutional change lies in the symbolic importance for the contemporaries rather than in the legislative changes themselves, which had little effect internally in Ireland or externally in the relationship with Great Britain.

This chapter argues that protecting rights in a constitutional democracy is a collaborative enterprise between all three branches of government, where each branch has a distinct but complementary role to play, whilst working together with the other branches in the constitutional scheme. At the heart of the chapter is a collaborative conception of the separation of powers, where the branches are situated within a heterarchical relationship of reciprocity, recognition, and respect. Grounded in the key values of comity, collaboration, and conflict management, this chapter sketches out the contours of the collaborative constitution. Instead of a conflictual dynamic of ’constitutional showdowns’, the chapter marks out a preference for ’constitutional slowdowns’. Whilst accepting the inevitability and, indeed, the legitimacy of constitutional counterbalancing and tension between the branches of government, the collaborative constitution attends to the collaborative norms which frame and shape the interaction between the branches in a well-functioning constitutional order.