06 August 2024
Making the Unacceptable Acceptable
Over the last days, England and Northern Ireland have witnessed a wave of racist violence and destruction. These riots, which have thrown the country into chaos, included attacks on mosques, burning of cars, and confrontations with the police. The racist nature of the events is made clear by the racist chants that are sung amid them, by posters shown by participants, and by the selective targeting of minorities. Given how shocking these scenes are, one naturally wonders what is causing them. Research suggests that elite rhetoric in recent months can have made these events more likely, by making far-right individuals feel that acting on their views is more acceptable. Continue reading >>
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08 July 2024
The Stakes of the Unwritten Constitutional Norms and Principles Debate in the UK
Unwritten principles serve crucial purposes in the UK’s constitution. For example, they provide guardrails for judicial interpretation of legislation, and they form or give rise to substantive rules about the limits of legislative, judicial and executive power. With a growing body of research on unwritten constitutionalism, it is worth considering why these issues matter, and what is at stake in the debate. This post considers two issues which it argues can only be properly understood once regard is paid to the unwritten principles and norms in the UK’s constitution: the limits of Westminster’s legislative power, and the nature of the UK’s territorial constitution. Continue reading >>
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14 May 2024
Bend it like Britain?
After months of parliamentary ping-pong, the UK Parliament passed the “Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act” in late April. Not even two weeks later, 66 persons were detained to be deported to Rwanda, and the FDA launched an unprecedented legal action before the High Court, claiming the Act conflicts with the Civil Service Code obligation to “uphold the rule of law and administration of justice.” By seeking to avoid the prohibition of refoulement, the Act undermines both core principles of the rule of law and disapplies fundamental human rights protections. This blog post discusses key provisions of the new Act, the concerns they raise and some remaining avenues for legal challenges. Continue reading >>16 May 2023
Please Be Kind and Polite. Or Else…
Britain loves to project an image of polite calmness; of a stiff upper lip; of tea, crumpets, and lashings of ginger beer. The Paddington the Bear Twitter account epitomised this sentiment on the morning of the Coronation, reminding people to ‘be kind and polite today.’ Yet in England's green and pleasant land, as loyal British subjects scoffed their scones, quaffed their Pimm’s and raised a glass to their new Monarch, it was not soft-power but good ol’ fashioned state violence that ensured the historical Coronation went off without a hitch. Continue reading >>
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05 May 2023
The UK vs the ECtHR
In recent months, the UK government has tabled two Bills - the Bill of Rights Bill and the Illegal Migration Bill - before Parliament which would have the consequence - and almost certainly have the intention - of setting the UK on a collision course with the Council of Europe, and especially the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This post details how these Bills serve to undermine the UK’s obligations under the ECHR and explains their significance within the larger debate surrounding the UK’s possible withdrawal from the Convention. It places this debate in the context of the rarely-convened Council of Europe summit of heads of state and government in Reykjavik in May 2023, whose ambitious agenda is to protect the ‘common heritage’ of respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the face of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and other existential threats. Continue reading >>
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19 April 2023
Closure and Continuity
Trade, sovereignty, rights and freedoms, courts, and constitutional change are lenses through which we can examine how two politically, culturally, and linguistically inextricably linked common law countries have defined their diverging relationship with the EU. 50 years on the divergence is complete. The UK is now a third country, charting a future outside the EU, while Ireland remains one of 27 Member States reporting high levels of trust and support for the EU. Hence 50 years on we have both the desire for closure (for the UK) and continuity (for Ireland). In fact, we argue that closure and continuity are necessary for the relations between both states and their relationship with the EU now and in the next half century. Continue reading >>
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12 April 2023
Democracy, Sovereignty and Europe
Fifty years after Ireland and UK joined the EEC together in January 1973, the two states find themselves on radically different European trajectories. Both are common law countries with shared traditions of parliamentary governance and strong cultural links to the wider Anglosphere. However, in Ireland there is broad elite and popular support for maintaining alignment with the requirements of EU and ECHR law – while, in the UK, such European influences trigger a sharp allergic reaction. What explains this dramatic divergence? The answer perhaps lies partially in the differing ‘constitutional imaginaries’ of Ireland and the UK, and how EU and ECHR alignment is understood to impact on the exercise of popular sovereignty in both states. Continue reading >>
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11 April 2023
Integration as Disintegration
50 years after accession of Ireland and the UK to the EEC and seven years after the disastrous Brexit referendum, Ireland still sits pretty in the EU, but the UK and its Constitution have been called into possibly fatal doubt, especially as regards their integrative capacity, or continuing ability to bind distinct political classes and the nations of the Union to one another. Writing in early 2023, amidst the ruins of a Brexit reality, if not the end of the Brexit delusion, this short commentary foresees – possibly foolishly – a radical future of independent nations within a loose ‘Confederation of the Isles’, wherein Ireland might share some (symbolic) competences with Scotland, England and Wales, enabling a peaceful a prosperous coexistence within the North-western European archipelago. Continue reading >>
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06 April 2023
Constitutional Change in the UK – People or Party?
The UK’s membership of, and later exit from, the EU has had a dramatic effect on the UK constitution. It also provided a catalyst for further change. These demonstrate the relative ease with which the UK constitution can be modified, reinforcing the UK’s characterisation as a predominantly political, flexible constitution. This post will argue that these transformations illustrate something more fundamental that applies to all constitutions – be they predominantly codified or uncodified, with or without the ability of the courts to strike down unconstitutional legislation. Continue reading >>
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05 April 2023
Imposing Brexit onto Northern Ireland’s Post-Conflict Governance Order
The Westphalian state provides for an all-but ubiquitous building block of governance. It stacks neatly into dominant accounts of multi-level governance, with all states being presented as nominal equals on the plain of international law. Where reasons of scale or the needs of diverse societies require, sub-state levels of governance can be introduced into the equation. Multiple states, moreover, can pool aspects of their law and decision making where they see the advantages of so doing, resulting in regional supra-national bodies such as the EU. Continue reading >>
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