Constitutional Control of Vague Criminal Law

Abstract

This article concerns the Irish constitutional legality requirement that criminal law be certain and not vague. It does three main things. First, it explains the certainty requirement in terms of fair notice and fair adjudication. Second, it argues that assessing the constitutionality of vagueness in criminal law is typically about the location and effect of the vagueness rather than its magnitude. Third, the article suggests an elemental certainty test for identifying cases of unconstitutional vagueness.