Four Reasons Why the UK’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill Is a Mistake

Summary:

The Northern Ireland Protocol bill was an attempt by the UK to alter the protocol by forcing a change in the EU’s position. It was effectively an ultimatum by the British government: agree to renegotiate the protocol – or we implement our own proposals unilaterally, like it or not. The legislation would, on the one hand, disapply most of the current protocol by switching off its legal effect in domestic law. On the other, it would grant British ministers extraordinarily wide discretionary powers to implement their alternative to the protocol. Although the bill was described by Boris Johnson as a “trivial set of adjustments”, it was more accurate to call it a near-complete rewrite of a binding international treaty, into which the government voluntarily entered, through domestic law.

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ESO Records

Cardiff EDC: 2021- : Discussions on the implementation of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland https://www.europeansources.info/record/infringement-procedure-by-the-european-commission-against-the-united-kingdom-over-breach-of-obligations-under-the-protocol-on-ireland-and-northern-ireland/

UK Parliament: Session 2022/23, Bill 12: Northern Ireland Protocol Bill https://www.europeansources.info/record/northern-ireland-protocol-bill/

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