The Ireland-Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the Withdrawal Agreement concluded between the European Union and the United Kingdom, is intended to address the difficult and complex impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland, North and South, and between Ireland and Great Britain. It has become an exceptionally important, if controversial, part of the new architecture that governs the relationship between the UK and the EU more generally, covering issues that range from trade flows to free movement, from North-South Co-operation to the protection of human rights, from customs arrangements to democratic oversight by the Northern Ireland Assembly. This edited collection offers insights from a wide array of academic experts and practitioners in each of the various areas of legal practice that the Protocol affects, providing a comprehensive examination of the Protocol in all its legal dimensions, drawing on international law, European Union Law, and domestic constitutional and public law. This title is also available as Open Access.

‘This concise, yet almost encyclopedic collection of essays will help readers cut through the breathtaking complexity of Brexit as it relates to the most difficult issue of Northern Ireland. With outstanding entries on the relevant procedures, institutions, and concepts, as well as a host of substantive sectors, this volume will become an indispensable legal handbook for the generation that must now grapple with untangling the UK from Europe while keeping further troubles at bay.'

Daniel Halberstam - Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law and Director of the European Legal Studies Program at the University of Michigan Law School

‘This book is an invaluable and highly readable guide to the formidable complexities of the Protocol and its implications for everyone living on the island of Ireland. There are many who will talk about the Protocol, but until you read this book you cannot really say that you fully understand it.'

Gerard Hogan - Justice Gerard Hogan, Supreme Court of Ireland, formerly Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union 

‘The Protocol has been a central matter of Brexit political debate. However, it is first and foremost a legal instrument with consequences in domestic and international law.  This is the first book on the Protocol's many legal dimensions. Bringing together a uniquely qualified group of global experts, the book is an important contribution to navigating the Protocol.  Is at once is the key legal text on the Protocol, a must-read for those concerned with the political consequences of the Protocol, and a valuable source of information in plain language, for anyone concerned to cut through the rhetoric to understand what the Protocol is and does.'

Christine Bell - Professor of Constitutional Law, Edinburgh School of Law, University of Edinburgh

'Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol have given rise to more issues of constitutional law, the results of a complex bundle of treaties and legislation, than any other single incident in UK constitutional history. There is no underlying or unifying concept. No lawyer would ever design such a complicated structure from scratch. This book is an analysis of the most important issues. It explains them as clearly as possible, and provides a practical and thoughtful basis on which lawyers in the UK, in both parts of Ireland, and the EU  on which this unprecedented structure can proceed. The courts of Northern Ireland have the great responsibility of making it intelligible, and making it work.'

John Temple Lang - former Head of the Legal Service, of the European Commission

'The Ireland-Northern Ireland Protocol regulates the most contentious intersection of the UK and EU legal orders as Brexit unfolds. This excellent volume, analysing the Protocol’s legal effect across all dimensions, will be essential reading for anyone interested in the future of EU-UK relations.'

Oran Doyle - Trinity College Dublin