Category: Northern Ireland
-
Richard Martin: Scenes from the Garvaghy Road, 2026: Protest, Police and Public Law in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland’s so-called marching season is usually petering out by now. This year looks to be different. On Sunday 27 September, after a 28-year wait and a flurry of last-minute legal challenges, the Orange Order was given permission for 35 of its members to complete the return leg of its march from Drumcree parish church…
-
Patrick Graham: Legality, Legitimacy, and Durability – The Limits of Constitutional Reform in Northern Ireland
There is some unreality to the current clamour for reform of Northern Ireland’s devolved government. The three major non-unionist parties, as well as the British and Irish governments, have proposed or are open to substantial changes in the teeth of unionist opposition. That debate too often overlooks cross-community consent as a principle shaping constitutional form,…
-
Nikos Skoutaris: Fault Lines: The UK’s Asymmetric Constitution and the Problem of Self-Determination After May 2026
For the first time in the history of devolution, nationalist or independence-oriented parties lead all three devolved nations simultaneously: Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, Plaid Cymru in Wales, and the SNP in Scotland. Meanwhile, Reform UK topped the national equivalent vote in England. The United Kingdom’s political geography has been fundamentally redrawn. What has not…
-
Anurag Deb, Colin Murray and Gabriel Tan: Legacy Issues: In re Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [2025] UKSC 47
Introduction It is a rare case where the UK Government initiates a judicial review against an independent public body. The Thompson case is just such a case. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland intervened in an inquest process to attempt to prevent information about the murder of Liam Paul Thompson by the UDA in…
-
Eleni Frantziou and Anurag Deb: Direct Effect, Disapplication, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Still Together in Northern Ireland after Dillon?
Between 14 and 16 October 2025, the UK Supreme Court heard the appeal of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (‘SOSNI’) against the Dillon decision of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal (‘NICA’). The facts of the case have already been explained in an earlier post, so there is no need to rehearse them…
-
Brice Dickson: The meaning of ‘civil rights’ in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement
From 14 to 16 October 2025 the UK Supreme Court is due to hear an important case on the extent to which the Windsor Framework – the new name for the revised Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol to the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement of 2020 – protects ‘civil rights’ in Northern Ireland. In Dillon’s and Others’ Application, an appeal by the…
-
Anurag Deb and Nicholas Kilford: Conditioning the UK Parliament’s Power to Legislate for a Devolved Part of the UK: Part II – Some Challenges Posed by Northern Ireland
Introduction In its judgments in Continuity Bill and Treaty Incorporation, the Supreme Court identified what we describe in the first part of this post as the ‘conditioning limitation’. The purpose of that first part was to demonstrate how the conditioning limitation potentially threatens otherwise constitutionally innocuous or unexceptional exercises of devolved legislative power. Although those…
-
Anurag Deb and Nicholas Kilford: Conditioning the UK Parliament’s power to legislate for a devolved part of the UK: Part I – The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022
Introduction The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (‘CCA’) is, from a constitutional perspective, a fairly unassuming, if far-reaching, exercise of devolved legislative power. It is an example of a devolved part of the UK seizing the opportunity the devolution framework provides to ‘design policies and take public spending decisions that more closely align with…
-
Anurag Deb and Colin Murray: An Unfortunate Legacy: Fixing the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023
The Labour Government comes into office seeking to indicate, as a priority, that it is making a break from its predecessors. That much is central to a manifesto simply entitled Change. Prominent within this agenda is an effort to reset relations with the Irish Government and attempt to restore a partnership around Northern Ireland affairs. This…
-
Ronan Cormacain: Seeking asylum on the outgoing tide of EU law – Supremacy of EU law in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework
On 13 May 2024, Humphreys J in the Northern Ireland High Court delivered his judgment in The matter of Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, JR295 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023 [2024] NIKB 35. The case dealt with the impact of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Windsor Framework. Re NIHRC had the effect of disapplying…