Tag: Good Friday Agreement
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Rory O’Connell: The Johnson Letter and Cross-community Agreement in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is the part of these islands likely to be most affected by Brexit. As Parliament is currently debating the Government’s proposed new approach to the EU, issues about Northern Ireland require detailed consideration, especially in light of the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement. Bearing in mind the Agreement, the political and constitutional implications…
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Jack Simson Caird and Ellis Paterson: Could the UK Courts Disapply Domestic Legislation to Enforce the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland?
If the Withdrawal Agreement is approved, then Parliament will be asked to legislate to give domestic legal effect to its content through the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill. One of the most significant provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement, Article 4, purports to give the entire contents of the Withdrawal Agreement special status within the UK’s constitutional…
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Ciaran White: Northern Ireland Workers’ Rights and the Draft Withdrawal Agreement: The Quasi-Constitutional Entrenchment of EU-derived Labour Law Rights
Northern Ireland employment law is a devolved issue and its statute book has always been largely distinct and separate from that applicable in GB. This always had the potential to allow for NI-specific protections of EU-derived labour law rights post-Brexit, as I have suggested on other occasions. Had there been political consensus in the Northern…
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Colin Murray: Brexit and the “Constitutional Integrity” of the United Kingdom
Something no Prime Minister could contemplate The Foreign Office records regarding the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 must be amongst the most regularly requested papers held at the National Archives. One file, FO 608/65, is part of the herculean effort to redraw the map of Europe after the First World War. It recounts the efforts…
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Anurag Deb: Buick: Two Courts, Two Approaches and No Government
On 6 July 2018, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal handed down its ruling in Buick’s application for judicial review [2018] NICA 26. A keenly awaited ruling for its constitutional implications, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure (“DFI”) against the decision of Mrs Justice Keegan in the…
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Christopher McCrudden and Daniel Halberstam: Northern Ireland’s Supreme Court Brexit Problem (and the UK’s too)
There are many unfortunate results of Brexit, but one of the most problematic is the adverse effects it has had on current and future relationships between Britain and Ireland, and within Northern Ireland. These adverse effects were entirely predictable and show little sign of abating, significantly contributing to the difficulties the UK government faces in…
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Anne Smith and Colin Harvey: Continuing the Conversation about a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
The long journey towards a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland continues. It is being referred to again in the current negotiations as an unimplemented element of earlier Agreements. We are taking forward a project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust with the aim of reflecting on the next steps. With this in mind…
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Ruth Keating: Rigorous Impartiality and a Coalition of Chaos
“What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into power.” Edward Carson, leader of the Ulster Unionists during the Home Rule crisis, 1921 Amongst Theresa May’s list of growing concerns is a potential landmark…
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Colin Harvey and Daniel Holder: The Great Repeal Bill and the Good Friday Agreement – Cementing a Stalemate or Constitutional Collision Course?
Introduction – a perfect storm? As predicted, Brexit is proving to be profoundly destabilising for the peace process and the constitutional politics of Northern Ireland. An outcome that lacks the consent of the people of Northern Ireland (a majority voted to remain) is re-opening fundamental questions about future relationships across these islands. We argue that…
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Kenneth Campbell QC: How Devolution Has Altered Some Fundamentals of the British Constitution
Introduction Regular readers of this blog will need no reminding of how much anticipation has been devoted to the Art 50 litigations ahead of and and during the UK Government’s appeal to the UK Supreme Court, in what has been by turns both an attempt to work out the boundaries of the constitution, and a…