Summary of Judgment - In re Jim Allister and others (EU Exit) - CA
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Neutral Citation | Summary of Judgment - In re Jim Allister and others (EU Exit) - CA |
| Court | Court of Judicature (NI) |
| Date | 14 March 2022 |
Judicial Communications Office
1
14 March 2022
COURT DISMISSES APPEAL AGAINST EU EXIT PROTOCOL
Summary of Judgment
The Court of Appeal
1
today dismissed appeals against the decision of Mr Justice Colton delivered on
30 June 2021 wherein he dismissed applications for judicial review challenging the EU Withdrawal
Protocol and the Withdrawal Acts and Regulations. Two appeals were before the court. The first
was by Jim Allister and others
2
(“the Allister group”) and the second by Clifford Peeples. There was
a substantial degree of overlap between the appeals.
The target of the appellants’ challenges were the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol to the
Withdrawal Agreement (“the Protocol”) and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (Democratic
Consent Process) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”). The appellants raised the
following grounds of challenge:
Ground 1: Incompatibility of the Protocol and the 2020 Regulations with Article VI of the Acts of
Union 1800 (“the 1800 Act”)
Ground 2: Incompatibility of the Protocol with section 1(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998
(“the NIA 1998”)
Ground 3: Unlawful elimination of the constitutional safeguard enshrined in section 42 of the
NIA 1998 as qualified by the 2020 Regulations
Ground 4: Breach of Article 3 of Protocol One (“A3P1”) of the European Convention on Human
Rights (“ECHR”)
Ground 5: Breaches of EU law.
The Protocol creates a customs and regulatory border between NI and Great Britain in those
specified areas of trade to which it applies. It positions NI primarily within the EU internal market
rather than that of the UK. The Protocol subjects NI to this regulated trading regime until the
beginning of 2025. The judgment included a chronology of events leading up to the making of the
2020 Regulations at paragraph [9].
i.
A UK referendum on EU Membership took place on 23 June 2016.
ii.
A majority of the people of the UK voted to leave the EU.
iii.
On 29 March 2017 the UK Prime Minister gave notification under Article 50 of
the TEU of the UK’s intention to leave the EU.
iv.
Negotiations commenced between Her Majesty’s Government (“HMG”) and
the EU in June 2017.
v.
A draft WA was first published on 25 November 2018. The UK Parliament
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The panel was Keegan LCJ, Treacy LJ and McCloskey LJ. Keegan LCJ delivered a judgment with which
Treacy LJ agreed and McCloskey LJ delivered a concurring judgment.
2
Jim Allister MLA, Benyamin Habib (elected as an MEP as a member of the Bre xit Party), Arlene Foster MLA,
Steve Aiken MLA, Baroness Hoey, Lord Trimble.
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