The Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly

Confused by the Northern Ireland issue in Brexit? This is the book explaining the complex legal arrangements addressing that problem.

Reflecting a developing trend towards interdisciplinary research in economics and law, this agenda-setting volume makes the case for economic sociology of law – an emerging field that draws on empirical, analytical and normative insights from sociology to investigate relationships between legal and economic phenomena. It locates this novel subject in a wider socio-legal tradition and identifies common ground between Polanyian and Weberian approaches to the law, economy, and society, despite the two theorists’ divergent views on the functionality of the capitalist model. The volume provides a platform for researchers’ critical responses to the ‘social embeddedness’ of market societies. Contributors demonstrate the value of applying a combination of methods in their work, from heterogeneous disciplines such as legal history and ethnography. They consider the position in the western and developed nations, as well as in post-colonial polities. The resulting publication is a well-crafted primer on a specialism that, by combining the insights of socio-economic analysis with the formative influences exerted by their specific legal contexts, informs a more nuanced assessment of law, economics and society.

This book provides the first comprehensive account of the role played by the European Convention on Human Rights during the conflict in Northern Ireland from 1968. Brice Dickson studies the effectiveness of the Convention in protecting human rights in a society wracked by terrorism and deep political conflict, detailing the numerous applications lodged at Strasbourg relating to the conflict and considering how they were dealt with by the enforcement bodies. The book illustrates the limitations inherent in the Convention system but also demonstrates how the European Commission and Court of Human Rights gradually developed a more interventionist approach to the applications emanating from Northern Ireland. In turn this allowed the Convention to become a more secure guarantor of basic rights and freedoms during times of extreme civil unrest and political turmoil elsewhere in Europe. The topics examined include the right to life, the right not to be ill-treated, the right to liberty, the right to a fair trial, the right to a private life, the right to freedom of belief, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of assembly, and the right not to be discriminated against. The book argues that, while eventually the European Court did use the applications from Northern Ireland to establish important human rights principles, their development was slow and arduous and some gaps in protection still remain. The book illustrates the limits of the European Convention as a tool for protecting human rights in times of crisis.

Each of the jurisdictions within the United Kingdom is constantly refining the operational characteristics of its planning system and while there are some common practices, there are also substantive divergences. In each territory the planning template is shaped within a dynamic political and legal context and thus students and practitioners require an accessible, in-depth and up-to-date literature dealing with this matter. The multi-disciplinary contributors to this expanded Second Edition of Planning Law and Practice in Northern Ireland explore the progression of planning within the region and discuss prominent facets of contemporary development management, development plans, environmental law, property law and professional practice. Consideration is given to the consequences of Brexit for planning in Northern Ireland, devolved government institutional structures for planning, and the post-2015 emergent performance of local authorities in this arena. The book makes an important contribution to the wider literature in this field and, with its extensive citing of statutes and cases, provides an essential resource for students, planning practitioners and researchers.