scholarly journals The Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party: Implications for the Barnett Formula and Intergovernmental Relations in the UK

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 586-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Birrell ◽  
Deirdre Heenan
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Rules And Principles ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article assesses the implications of the 2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the context of the Barnett Formula and intergovernmental relations post the devolution settlement and the Good Friday Agreement. In light of the parties’ shared objectives to strengthen and enhance the UK, the Confidence and Supply Agreement, sets out how the DUP would support the minority Conservative government in specific areas, including finance Bills and matters pertaining to the exit from the European Union. This article examines the nature and operation of this Agreement and assesses the extent to which it may be seen to have breached established conventions, rules and principles around devolved funding and the principle of political impartiality enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. It is argued that the Confidence and Supply Agreement has contributed to the perceived shortcomings of the Barnett Formula as a robust, fair, financial methodology. The distribution of money to the devolved administrations should be modernised and based on need, accountability and transparency. It is also concluded that being locked into a parliamentary deal undermines the UK Government’s ability to be impartial between the competing interests in Northern Ireland.

scholarly journals Between intergovernmental relations and paradiplomacy: Wales and the Brexit of the regions

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Hunt ◽  
Rachel Minto
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Awareness Raising ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Regional Interests ◽  
Domestic Level

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) is an assertion of UK nation-state sovereignty. Notwithstanding this state-centrism, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have distinct interests to protect as part of the Brexit negotiations. This article explores how the interests of one regional case, Wales, were accommodated in the pre-negotiation phase, at a domestic level—through intergovernmental structures—and an EU level through paradiplomacy. We explore the structures for sub-state influence, Wales’ engagement with these structures and what has informed its approach. We argue that Wales’ behaviour reflects its positioning as a ‘Good Unionist’ and a ‘Good European’. Despite the weakness of intra-UK structures, Wales has preferred to pursue policy influence at a UK (not an EU) level. In Brussels, regional interests inform the context for Brexit. Here, Wales has focused on awareness-raising, highlighting that the UK Government does not command the ‘monopoly on perspectives’ towards Brexit in the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland and the UK since the Good Friday agreement

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Duffy ◽  
James Dingley
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
The Uk

The Future of British–Irish Relations after Brexit

2020 ◽  
pp. 254-273
Author(s):  
Etain Tannam
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Sectarian Violence ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Potential Methods ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

This chapter assesses the impact of UK withdrawal from the EU on British–Irish relations. It examines yet another possible disintegrative effect of Brexit on the UK system, namely the re-unification of Ireland. The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, bringing to a close decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, had created an excellent working relations between Dublin and London. However, Brexit has threated this equilibrium, and has unexpectedly brought back on the agenda a possible border poll. The chapter then looks at the unfolding of the Brexit negotiations from June of 2016 to March of 2020 from the perspectives of British–Irish relations. It also studies the importance of the British–Irish relationship and the EU in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and considers potential methods of managing the relationship after Brexit.

Constitutional Policy & Territorial Politics in the UK Vol 1

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Influencing Factors ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Early Maturity ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Initial Settlement ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
The Uk

This is the first of a two-volume work which provides an authoritative account of devolution in the UK since the initial settlement under New Labour in 1997. This first volume meets the need for a comprehensive, UK-wide analysis of the formative years of devolution from the years 1997 to 2007, offering a rigorous and theoretically innovative re-examination of the period that traces territorial politics from initial settlements in Scotland and Wales and the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland to early maturity. The book reviews the trajectory and influencing factors of devolution and its subsequent impacts, using a novel framework to set a significant new agenda for thinking and research on devolution.

Neither hard nor soft but racist? The Good Friday Agreement and the Irish border after Brexit

Race & Class ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Holder
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Entry Decisions

This is an edited version of a talk given by a human rights activist from Belfast on 26 June 2017 at a seminar, held at IRR, to discuss the implications of ‘Brexit’ on the Good Friday Agreement and the UK-Ireland Common Travel Area. The talk took place on the day of publication of the ‘confidence and supply’ agreement between the Democratic Unionist Party and the minority Conservative government. It discussed the prospects for the Good Friday Agreement in terms of the new alliance; whether populist anti-migrant racism will become institutionalised via discretionary border checks and entry decisions; how the ethos and actions of the UK Border Force fit with the peace settlement’s promise of non-discriminatory, human rights-compliant and accountable policing, and whether Brexit spells the end of the Common Travel Area and the further isolation of migrant communities.

‘Slow learners’? Comparing the Sunningdale Agreement and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hennessey
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Slow Learners ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Ministerial Council ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter compares and contrasts the 1973 and 1998 Agreements that, on the face of it, are remarkably similar: both involve power-sharing and an institutional link between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The phrase ‘Sunningdale for slow learners’, attributed to Seamus Mallon, masks a misunderstanding of the fundamental differences between the two Agreements. The former Agreement looked to establish a Council of Ireland with executive powers that had the potential to evolve into an embryonic all-Ireland government; the latter Agreement established a consultative North-South Ministerial Council with no executive powers that could not evolve into a united Ireland by incremental moves. This was the key to Unionist acceptance of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in comparison to Unionist rejection of the Sunningdale Agreement. In constitutional terms the GFA was a Unionist settlement that secured Northern Ireland’s position within the United Kingdom, recognised British sovereignty in Northern Ireland and established that a united Ireland could only be achieved on the basis of the principle of consent. In contrast the Sunningdale Agreement was, in constitutional terms, a Nationalist settlement that did not recognise Northern Ireland was part of the UK and attempted to bypass the principle of consent by establishing powerful North-South bodies. The chapter argues that the only thing the two Agreements has in common was a power-sharing element for the government of Northern Ireland.

Brexit and the Northern Ireland Question

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Doyle ◽  
Eileen Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
The Common ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
The Eu

This chapter analyses the potential impact of Brexit on the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’, through a discussion of four interrelated issues—political divisions in Northern Ireland; the single market; the common travel area; and the Good Friday Agreement, all of which reflect the fundamental political divisions between Irish nationalists and those who believe that Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK. The chapter highlights two main threats to peace – the undermining of the Good Friday Agreement which is premised on membership of the EU and its institutional framework, and the crucial issue of where the inevitable hard border between the EU and the UK will be located. It argues that Brexit has the potential to destroy the peace process and suggests possible policy solutions to mitigate the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, while also assessing the political obstacles to the adoption of such flexible policy solutions.

scholarly journals ‘Flexible and Imaginative’: The EU’s Accommodation of Northern Ireland in the UK–EU Withdrawal Agreement

2021 ◽  
pp. 002088172110019
Author(s):  
Katy Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Member State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Decision To Leave ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Uk ◽  
External Actors ◽  
The Eu

The 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement that cemented the peace process formalized Northern Ireland’s position as a region integrally connected to both Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The multilevel governance and cross-border cooperation this entailed was enabled by common UK and Irish membership of the European Union. The UK’s decision to leave the EU posed risks to this settlement. In response, they engaged in a quest for ‘flexible and imaginative solutions’ to this conundrum. The unique arrangements established through the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the UK–EU Withdrawal Agreement (2019) mark an innovative and ambitious development for the EU. First, it de facto includes a region of a non-member state within its internal market for goods and, second, it delegates the enforcement of its rules to that non-member state. The Protocol represents a significant departure for the EU in terms of its typical engagement with external actors. Most significantly, it will not only represent a ‘live’ concern for the EU but a unique type of responsibility.

Brexit and Britain’s Changing Constitution

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 400-417
Author(s):  
Rainer Grote
Keyword(s):  
Conservative Party ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Run Up ◽  
The Uk

The Brexit saga which culminated in the sweeping victory of the Conservative Party in the parliamentary elections of December 2019 and the British withdrawal from the European Union the following months caused a major upheaval in the relationship between Britain’s main constitutional actors, especially between the government and the judiciary. In the course of the long-winded and acrimonious Brexit debate, the courts were repeatedly asked to intervene at critical junctures of the withdrawal process, first to secure a central role for Parliament in discussing and approving the terms of withdrawal and then to protect Parliament against attempts by the government to curtail and render ineffective this role through the questionable use of its prerogative powers. This development reached its climax with the UK Supreme Court’s judgment of 24 September 2019 on the unlawfulness of the prorogation of Parliament decided by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister in the run-up to Brexit, an unprecedented interference by the courts with the exercise of prerogative powers in the name of a functioning parliamentary democracy. While the reasoning of the Court does not appear entirely convincing, there can be no doubt that the ruling was crucial in upholding the central role of Parliament in the Brexit negotiations and, by implication, of the authority of the courts which had defined that role at the beginning of the negotiations. That the Supreme Court felt it necessary to take the unprecedented step of confronting the executive over the use of its prerogative powers in a highly polarized political debate also demonstrates the extent to which the political consensus which in former times had underpinned the functioning of Britain’s flexible constitutional democracy has broken down as a result of the Brexit debate, and the divisions it has engendered within Britain’s political class and in the public at large. This gives rise to the concern that the reforms announced by the Conservative government following its sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections of December 2019 will destroy any progress which had been made in the UK prior to the Brexit referendum towards a modern practice of parliamentary majority government based on incomplete but genuine checks and balances.

Introduction: How the British-exit is Impacting the European Union?

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-149
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
International Studies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Uk

This special issue of International Studies focuses on ‘how the British-exit is impacting the European Union’. This introduction is a review of the context, costs and institutional repercussions, as well as the very recent the UK/European Union trade deal and implications for customs borders. Eight articles then detail consequences for European Union policies and important trading relationships: Immigration, Citizenship, Gender, Northern Ireland, Trade and impacts on India, Canada and Japan.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document