Brexit Protocol Cutting Off Northern Ireland from UK Constitutional – Court

A court in Northern Ireland has ruled that a post-Brexit protocol cutting the region off from the United Kingdom is constitutional.

The Northern Ireland protocol — a post-Brexit agreement between the UK and the European Union — has been ruled constitutional by the Belfast Court of Appeals.

This is despite concerns from pro-Britain Unionists that the agreement effectively cuts off Northern Ireland from Britain, despite both being legally equal parts of the same country.

According to a report by the Irish Times, however, Northern Ireland’s Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan was not convinced by the arguments presented to her, saying that the agreement enshrining the protocol was made as a result of the clearly sighted sovereign will of parliament, and so any conflict with the Act of Union 1800 — which legally cements Northern Ireland’s position in the UK — can be overridden.

“Parliament was clearly sighted on the protocol which was the end result of a protracted, transparent, debated, informed and fully democratic process which decided arrangements for Northern Ireland post-Brexit,” the judge stated.

“The terms were settled and made law after a long parliamentary process, and it cannot be seriously suggested that Parliament was unaware of the changes that may be wrought,” Justice Keegan continued. “This means that the terms of the protocol take precedence.”

Other objections to the protocol and legislation surrounding it — including those making reference to the 1998 Northern Ireland Act and European Convention on Human Rights — were also thrown out by the court.

However, one lawyer taking on the case on behalf of his client said that those taking the case would consider appealing the decision.

“What we say is there is a hierarchy of constitutional statutes and the Acts of Union, which established Northern Ireland, sits at the top of that hierarchy,” The Guardian reports Ciaran O’Hare of McIvor Farrell Solicitors Belfast as saying. “This concept of a hierarchy of laws has never been litigated before.”

Unionism’s fight against the Northern Ireland protocol has been going particularly poorly in recent weeks, suffering not just legal setbacks, but political ones as well.

Despite widespread complaints and concerns from a large number of Unionists in Northern Ireland — with some even threatening to bring down the region’s devolved parliament — the British government has largely avoided taking on the EU’s post-Brexit presence in Northern Ireland.

While the ostensibly “Conservative and Unionist” government still does pay lip-service to the idea of adjusting the agreement, the politician in charge of renegotiating the agreement, Foreign Secretary Lizz Truss, has ultimately suggested that any plans to trigger Article 16 — which would bypass the issues with the agreement for the UK — should be put on hold due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

This vindicates earlier claims made by Sammy Wilson of the DUP, who thought the Russian invasion could be used as an excuse for Britain not to stand up to the European Union.

“Given that the Government has not taken the EU on to date, there is every likelihood that the current crisis could be used as an excuse,” Wilson said. “Boris Johnson should make it clear that just as he has led the mission to protect the Ukraine, he has a duty as Prime Minister to protect the whole of the UK including NI.”