Ivana Bacik
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| Senator Ivana Bacik | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office July 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Mary Henry |
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| Constituency | University of Dublin |
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| Born | 1968 Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Independent |
Ivana Bacik (born 1968) has been Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) Law School since 1996, and was a made a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2005. She was elected a Senator for the Trinity College Seanad Éireann Panel in July 2007. She has an LL.B. from TCD and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics. She practises as a barrister, and teaches courses in Criminal law; Criminology and Penology; and Feminist Theory and Law at Trinity. Her research interests include criminal law and criminology, constitutional law, feminist theories and law, human rights and equality issues in law. She is known in particular for her pro-choice campaigning since the 1990s, and her liberal stance on social issues.
Bacik regularly appears in the Irish media RTÉ television and radio current affairs programmes. She also writes articles in the Irish Times and Irish Independent concerning social policy, family planning, reproductive rights, or criminal law issues. She has appeared on public demonstrations and protests. [1]
Her family name is of Czech origin. Her grandfather, Karel Bacik, was in the Czech resistance and was imprisoned by the Nazis. After the war, he moved to Ireland with his young family, fleeing Stalin's takeover of his home country, eventually settling in Waterford. He brought much needed industrial skills to his new city, was involved in the establishment of Waterford Crystal in 1947, at a time when industrial employment in Waterford was in short supply.
As president of TCD Students' Union (TCDSU) (1989–90), she was taken to court by the anti-abortion pressure group, The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC), for providing information on abortion. SPUC were successful in the court case, albeit that success came in the 1990s, long after Bacik had graduated from Trinity College.
Her term as president of TCDSU ended prematurely when she resigned in 1990 after it was discovered that she had broken a mandate received from the Union membership. Bacik secretly broke the mandate given to her to voting for candidates at a Union of Students in Ireland conference. Despite 13 TCD representatives being mandated to vote for one candidate, Martin Whelan, a former TCD SU present, it transpired that candidate received only 12 votes, Bacik's vote instead being given to the feminist former UCD SU officer, Karen Quinlivan. A major controversy erupted in the Students' Union and an investigation started leading to Bacik's resignation.
Her career as a national politician commenced when she stood as a candidate for the Labour Party for the 2004 election to the European Parliament in the Dublin constituency. She ran with an established candidate Proinsias De Rossa, who was also the party president, sitting on the same ticket. It seemed a long shot that she would make it, though she did manage to poll respectably. Despite this setback, Bacik remains a prominent member of the Irish Labour Party, representing the party on numerous occasions in public debates and in the media.
In September 2006, Bacik was one of the 61 Irish academic signatories of a letter published in the Irish Times calling for an academic boycott of the state of Israel[1].
In 2006, Bacik acted as Junior Counsel in the unsuccessful Irish High Court case brought by Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan (KAL case) over non-recognition of their Same-sex marriage by the Irish Revenue Commissioners. The case is currently on appeal to the Irish Supreme Court.
She did not stand as a candidate for the Labour Party in the Irish General Election of 2007 However, she contested the Seanad Éireann elections for the third time in the Dublin University, as an independent candidate and was elected a Senator on the eighth count, over the quota but behind Senator Shane Ross and Senator David Norris, who had already been elected. She previously contested that same election and constituency in 1997 and 2002, but had been unsuccessful.
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