Description
This chapter examines the constitutional legacy of Brexit for Northern Ireland and argues that Brexit has reopened the Irish Question that the Belfast/ Good Friday Agreement (BGFA) had not resolved but had instead rendered governable and politically suspended. The BGFA, supported by the UK’s and Ireland’s shared membership of the European Union, created a settlement in which the constitutional route to Irish unification remained legally available while its urgency was reduced by open borders, regulatory alignment and shared rights frameworks. Brexit dismantled that wider context. The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland now called the ‘Windsor Framework’ have preserved aspects of cross-border openness, but only by creating a differentiated legal regime in which Northern Ireland remains partially aligned with EU law, generating new tensions around sovereignty, democratic legitimacy and territorial integrity. The chapter argues that Brexit shifts the debate from the familiar trigger question of when a border poll should occur to the harder landing-zone question of what constitutional order voters in both jurisdictions would actually be asked to endorse. It therefore explores Northern Ireland’s unsettled constitutional status, the implications of post-Brexit differentiation, and the unresolved role of rights, legitimacy and public consent. In doing so, it presents Northern Ireland as a constitutional bellwether for the post-Brexit United Kingdom.| Period | 26 Jun 2026 |
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| Event title | Legacy of Brexit conference |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Worcester, United KingdomShow on map |