Category: Northern Ireland
-
Ewan Smith and Tom Flynn: “Parity of Esteem? Ní Cheapaim!”
On the fourth of February, Nationalists and Unionists agreed to form a new government in Northern Ireland. For five of the seven years since 2017 Northern Ireland has been governed without ministers. Without political decision-makers, civil servants could only work within the lines of existing policy. This had stark consequences for people in Northern Ireland. On…
-
Anurag Deb: Constitutional Amendment by Interpretive Sidewind? Minister for Infrastructure v Safe Electricity A&T
There was a time, long before Brexit-related constitutional whiplash, when matters of the constitution sometimes involved the quieter, everyday affairs of the border counties on the island of Ireland. A 1937 case involving milk produced on a Donegal farm and sent to be sold in Derry became the template for testing whether Acts of the Scottish Parliament…
-
Anurag Deb: Direct Rule in Northern Ireland and the Power to Make Irrational Laws
The townland of Carrickmore in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland is the ancestral home of legendary Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. It is also near an ancient and beautifully preserved Neolithic court tomb, excavated between 1979 and 1982. Carrickmore was at the heart of a different funerary matter when, on 3 February 2023, the Northern Ireland…
-
Karolina Szopa: Triumph for Abortion Rights, or a Trojan Horse? The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill and Proportionality Assessment
Introduction On the 7 December 2022, the judgment of the UK Supreme Court in the Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland – Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill (‘SAZ’) affirmed the legality of a measure aimed at strengthening the exercise of the right to abortion in Northern Ireland (NI). The case concerned a…
-
Colin Murray: A New Period of “Indirect” Direct Rule – The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Bill
Only a few short months on from the passing of the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act 2022 and legislation is once again before Westminster to amend the Northern Ireland Act 1998 – as everyone knew that it would be. One of the key innovations in the 2022 Act, belatedly giving effect to a…
-
Brice Dickson: The HRA and Legacy Issues in Northern Ireland
*Editors’ note: This post is part of a series on ‘The Human Rights Act After 22 Years’, following the SLS Annual Seminar held in November 2022. You can read the first post in the series here. Generally speaking, the Human Rights Act (HRA) has played a marvellous role in helping the Northern Ireland peace process to…
-
Solon Solomon: The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill: A comparative perspective on the parliamentary role in the amendment of major international agreements
The discussion about the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is not new. Back in 2020, in the Internal Market Bill, the UK Government brought forth its volition to unilaterally amend the conditions of its Brexit agreement with the EU and several pieces were written then on the issue. In the last few days, the UK Government has returned…
-
Ronan Cormacain: Does the Vienna Convention provide a legal off-ramp for unilaterally changing the Northern Ireland Protocol?
The Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Withdrawal Agreement, designed to set out the legal parameters of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU. The Government proposes to introduce legislation to unilaterally change the Protocol. On the face of it, this would appear to place the Government on the highway to a breach of international law. But are there any off-ramps…
-
Sir Jonathan Jones QC (Hon): The Northern Ireland Protocol, International Law and the Attorney General
The Times recently (11 May 2022) reported that the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, had received, and given, legal advice to the effect that proposed government action in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol was compatible with international law. As I write, we have still not seen details of either the proposals or the legal arguments…
-
Ronan Cormacain: What should courts do when ministers flout the law?
No, this is not a paper on covid rule-breaking by UK ministers. Instead it analyses the judgment of 20th December 2021 in Re Napier, on what happens when Northern Ireland ministers refuse to comply with their legal duties. The particular duty was the duty to participate in meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council (the NSMC). …