Category: Ireland
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Tasneem Ghazi: Political Accountability for the Abuse of Guidance: Comparing English and Irish Guidance during the Coronavirus Lockdown
*Editors’ note – this post is part of a series on ‘The Rule of Guidance?’. The other posts in the series will be available here. Introduction In March 2020, the government of Ireland and the UK government exercising its responsibility for England, like others across the world, rushed to impose wide-ranging restrictions on many facets of…
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Atina Krajewska: The judgment of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal on abortion: a dark day for Poland, for Europe, and for democracy
On 22nd October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (CT) held unconstitutional a statutory legal provision, which had previously allowed women to access abortion on the grounds of fatal foetal abnormality. The provision under review, Article 4a para 1 (2) of the Act for Family Planning and the Protection of the Foetus (1993), had decriminalised abortion…
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Ciaran White and Frank Costello: Allowing Northern Ireland residents to vote in future EU Parliamentary Elections: An ‘itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-yellow-polka-dot’ proposal
The UK-EU negotiations on the final shape of the future relationship between them are reaching a crescendo as the deadline of 31 December 2020, which the s33 of the EU Withdrawal Act 2020 does not permit to be extended, approaches. However, whatever outcome those negotiations reach, Northern Ireland’s relationship with the EU will continue to…
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Christopher McCrudden: Why the European Union must insist that the UK remains committed to the European Convention on Human Rights
In the next few days and weeks, the EU and the UK must decide whether they both really want a future relations agreement. Both sides have agreed to step up their face-to-face meetings. To achieve an agreement, it looks like compromises will be required. It was ever thus — that is the nature of international…
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Tom Hickey: The weakening of parliamentary immunity by the Irish Supreme Court
In 2019, the Irish Supreme Court decided two cases concerning speech in parliament. The same seven judges sat in each case. The seven agreed in each case: Frank Clarke, the chief justice, wrote a single judgment for the Court each time. The applicant won in the first case, decided in late February. The Supreme Court…
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Sean Molloy: Covid-19, Emergency Legislation and Sunset Clauses
On 25 March, the UK passed the Coronavirus Act 2020 as part of its attempt to manage the coronavirus outbreak. The Act introduces a wave of temporary measures designed to either amend existing legislative provisions or introduce new statutory powers in order to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 (See Nicholas Clapham’s Conversation post here…
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Oran Doyle: Irish Unification: Processes and Considerations
Editors’ Note: This post is part of an IACL-AIDC Blog Symposium on unification of the island of Ireland. The Symposium is co-hosted by the Constitution Project @ UCC Blog. Selected posts will also be co-hosted by the UKCLA Blog. The full set of posts can be found here. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (GFA)—the agreement between…
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Anurag Deb: Identity: Northern Ireland’s Gordian Knot
On 14 October 2019, the Upper Tribunal (UT) handed down judgment in SSHD v De Souza, immediately dividing commentators both in and outside Northern Ireland. Briefly, the UT had heard the Home Secretary’s appeal against the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) decision which had declared that the American claimant (respondent in the UT) was entitled to apply…
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Anne Smith and Colin Harvey: Where Next for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland?
On the 10 December 2018 we launched the findings of our research project funded by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) about the next steps for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights. The 10 December 2018 was symbolic as it marked both the 10th anniversary of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission’s (NIHRC) advice to the…
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Weekly round-up of events
This week’s event announcement is below. ~~~ ICON-S British-Irish Chapter Annual Conference The United Kingdom’s Withdrawal from the European Union (?) Domestic and European Constitutional Implications University of Strathclyde, 24 – 25 April 2019 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS The UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU involves a major change to – and major test of…