Unreasonable and impracticable

The constitutional obligation placed on the Irish state to facilitate the use of Irish in legal proceedings has been measured at various points by reference to theories of practicability and at others by reference to theories of reasonableness. Yet the distinction or relationship between those standards has not been examined or clearly explained. This article examines these two standards – practicability and reasonableness – and seeks to interrogate their meaning and offer some preliminary thoughts on their relationship to each other.