On this page, you will find all the work we are doing relating to governance issues specific to Northern Ireland in the 21st century. Brexit contributes to the current issues in NI governance, but other governance matters - UK-specific or Northern Ireland-specific - are relatively independent of Brexit issues and instead are the consequence of multilevel governance.
Colin Murray and Sylvia de Mars travelled to sunny Lincoln to present ongoing work to academic colleagues. Their papers were titled:
Here is Sylvia inaction!
The research team support the inquiry of the EU Scrutiny Committee as they seek to understand how EU law will be monitored and assessed within the UK after Brexit.
In this blog post for the LSE Brexit Blog, Professor Aoife O’Donoghue outlines the legal aspects of the potential process for bringing about Irish unification after Brexit.
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Colin Murray gave a paper to the Newcastle University Brexit Conference on ‘Northern Ireland’s Constitution and Brexit’, where he discussed the fallout for Northern Ireland, as well as the ways the region continues to shape Brexit outcomes.
See him in full flow below!
The research team attended and presented at the ICON Society (UK and Ireland) conference hosted by the University of Strathclyde. The papers presented were titled:
de Mars, ‘Making it (Even) More Complex: Plucking Trade from its Nest’
Murray, ‘Futureland: Northern Ireland after Brexit’
O’Donoghue, ‘Life after Brexit: Referenda, International Law and Unifying Ireland?’
Warwick, ‘Disappearing Rights under the Draft EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement’
They will find their way into written and published form shortly!
Our book Bordering Two Unions: Northern Ireland and Brexit is now available. It includes discussions of the Irish border, trade, citizenship, justice and rights and constitutional change.
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Discussion of the repeal of the UK Human Rights Act has intensified following the election. The Act is a complex instrument, and there would be significant implications flowing from its repeal.
Northern Ireland has a particularly important relationship with the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Good Friday Agreement (a key part of the Northern Irish peace process) enshrined a fundamental role for the ECHR in moderating the values of plurality and equality in the ‘new’ Northern Ireland.
Unpicking the terms of the Good Friday Agreement is unwise. Human rights protections were not an ‘add on’ to the peace processes but were a central feature of the reconciliation.
Beyond the effects upon the people of Northern Ireland, there are potential implications for the UK’s relationship with Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement is (at least in part) a contract between the British and Irish states. The interests of the Republic of Ireland in human rights protections in Northern Ireland should also be respected.
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Response to the House of Lords EU Select Committee Brexit: Devolution Inquiry.
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On 13 February 2019, Mr. Colin Murray gave evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on the above inquiry. A transcript of the evidence session is available here, and the Select Committee Report citing Colin’s evidence is available here.