Grounding Constitutional Remedies in Reality: The Case for As-Applied Constitutional Challenges in Ireland David Kenny* Abstract-Constitutional challenges have to be grounded in reality, focusing on actual or apprehended application of laws rather than words alone. This is achieved by two sets of procedural rules in constitutional law: standing rules, deciding who can take constitutional challenges to laws and what arguments they can make; and remedial rules, deciding what the consequence of a finding of unconstitutionality will be. This article argues that though Irish courts have successfully focused constitutional challenges on the application of law with standing rules, they have not done so in respect of remedies, which are far too sweeping, and stretch far beyond the particular unconstitutional applications that create constitutional problems. It suggests that con- stitutional challenges in Ireland should be radically overhauled, replacing the primary constitutional remedy of outright invalidity of laws with the invalidity of applications - as-applied constitutional challenges. These challenges, which are the core remedial tool of US constitutional law, are totally unknown to Irish law. The article suggests, however, that they are fully compatible with the text and structure of the Irish Constitution, and would bring about several positive changes in Irish constitutional law. Introduction A statute's language is not, of itself, unconstitutional. It is not words that violate the Constitution, but the action, or power, or forbearance from action that the language of the statute allows, suggests, or demands. The adjudication of the constitutionality of a statute must, therefore, focus not just on the language of the statute; it has to focus on what the statute does or may do. It is interested in its effects or possible effects. The consequence of this is that courts seek to ground constitutional adjudication in reality, to focus on the effects and appli- cation of laws. This article is about the manner and extent to which the Irish courts focus on the application of laws in constitutional adjudication. Two aspects of constitutional litigation are particularly important to ground constitutional law in reality, and acknowledge that courts are not dealing with words alone, but with the applications of those words: restrictions on who can * Assistant Professor, School of Law, Trinity College Dublin. I would like to thank Dr Oran Doyle and Dr Rachael Walsh for comments on earlier drafts. Errors and omissions are my own.