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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Colin MurrayORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by School of Law, Queen's University Belfast, 2022.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Boris Johnson repeatedly presented the EU/UK Withdrawal Agreement to the UK electorate as an “oven ready” deal amid campaigning for the December 2019 general election. Subsequent events, however, have illustrated just how much of the deal remained to be worked out before the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland could actually be put on the table in the way Johnson sold the dish to the electorate, and the degree to which its implementation (the spell in the microwave, as Johnson extended his metaphor) would be contingent upon the progress of the EU/UK Future Relationship negotiations. This article examines the fissures which rapidly emerged between the UK and the EU over significant elements of the Protocol, and whether Johnson’s deal was inherently more unstable than the deal negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May. It explores how these profound divisions over its terms prevented the implementation of the Protocol as drafted and what might be left of the Protocol in the wake of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
Author(s): Murray C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly
Year: 2022
Volume: 73
Issue: S2
Pages: 8-36
Online publication date: 15/12/2022
Acceptance date: 15/12/2022
Date deposited: 15/12/2022
ISSN (print): 0029-3105
Publisher: School of Law, Queen's University Belfast
URL: https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v73iS2.1057
DOI: 10.53386/nilq.v73iS2.1057
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/vbqq-qd84
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