Criminal Justice Cooperation Between the UK and Ireland After Brexit: Special Edition
| Published date | 01 April 2021 |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320977529 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
The Journal of Criminal Law
2021, Vol. 85(2) 73–76
Criminal Justice Cooperation
ª The Author(s) 2020
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Between the UK and Ireland
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DOI: 10.1177/0022018320977529
After Brexit: Special Edition
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Gemma Davies
Northumbria University, UK
This special edition of the Journal of Criminal Law emanates from an Arts Humanities Research Council
project which funded the UK-Irish Criminal Justice Cooperation Network.1 The network is a collabora-
tion between Northumbria University, Queen’s University Belfast and the Association for Criminal
Justice Research and Development in Ireland (ACJRD). The aim was to understand the challenges that
the UK and Ireland might face, post-Brexit, in relation to criminal justice cooperation, and assist in
meeting those challenges where possible. The network held three workshops in 2019 and events in 2020
were moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.2 A planned conference has been postponed until
2021. Throughout the duration of the network over 70 stakeholders participated in events from a broad
range of criminal justice institutions, including police, prosecutors and border control, across Great
Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, along with policy makers and academics. The four
papers in this special edition all draw on insights shared by participants of the network events and the
authors would like to express their gratitude to those that have generously given of their time over the
last two years.
Academic research has highlighted that the political motivations and institutional infrastructure
framing the Brexit negotiations presented a risk to continued efficient cross-border criminal justice
cooperation.3 Written evidence to the House of Commons Justice Committee in 2017, submitted by
Northumbria academics, highlighted, inter alia, that the loss of EU criminal justice cooperation, com-
bined with the risks that Brexit presented for the Irish border, created a specific problem for the island of
Ireland and the maintenance of the Common Travel Area.4 A workshop held in Ireland in June 2017
further highlighted that criminal justice practitioners in Ireland and Northern Ireland felt that their voices
1. AH/S002197/1.
2. All were held under Chatham House rules.
3. Gemma Davies and Adam Jackson, ‘Evaluating the European Criminal Record Information System (ECRIS) for the Exchange
of Criminal Records Information Between Member States: Establishing the Need for Post “Brexit” Sharing of Criminal Records
Information’ (2017) 21 E&P 330; Tim Wilson, ‘The Impact of Brexit on the Future of UK...
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