Policy Paper: The Place of Northern Ireland within UK Human Rights Reform

63 Pages Posted: 15 Aug 2015

See all articles by C. R. G. Murray

C. R. G. Murray

Newcastle University - Newcastle Law School

Aoife O'Donoghue

Queen's University Belfast, School of Law

Ben T. C. Warwick

Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, UK

Date Written: August 1, 2015

Abstract

Considerable speculation has surrounded the impact of the Good Friday Agreement’s provisions on human rights upon the Conservative Government’s proposals for repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998. This Policy Paper seeks to demystify this aspect of the debate over the future of the Human Rights Act, examining the terms of the Good Friday Agreement as an international treaty and peace agreement and explaining its interrelationship with both the Human Rights Act and the Devolution Acts. Once some of the hyperbole that surrounds the Agreement and its attendant domestic legislation is removed, it can be seen that the impact of the Agreement is in some regards more extensive than has to date been recognised, whilst in other respects the Agreement has less impact than some of the supporters of the Human Rights Act claim. Reform of arrangements so fundamental to governance in the UK should not be taken lightly, but at present the offhand treatment of the place of the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Northern Ireland settlement generates just such a danger.

Keywords: Human rights, Northern Ireland, Human Rights Act, United Kingdom, Ireland, Good Friday Agreement, European Convention on Human Rights, international law, international human rights

Suggested Citation

Murray, C. R. G. and O'Donoghue, Aoife and Warwick, Ben, Policy Paper: The Place of Northern Ireland within UK Human Rights Reform (August 1, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2643464 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2643464

C. R. G. Murray (Contact Author)

Newcastle University - Newcastle Law School ( email )

Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/staff/profile/colin.murray

Aoife O'Donoghue

Queen's University Belfast, School of Law ( email )

Ireland

HOME PAGE: http://https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/aoife-odonoghue

Ben Warwick

Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, UK ( email )

Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/benwarwick

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