Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T23:21:34.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Constitutional Tensions of Brexit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

Oran Doyle
Affiliation:
Trinity College Dublin
Aileen McHarg
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Jo Murkens
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Get access

Summary

The constitutional upheavals occasioned by Brexit can, at one level, be attributed to the way in which the EU referendum was conceived and conducted:  the party political rather than constitutional motivation for the referendum; the relatively short and poor quality referendum campaign; the failure to take seriously the implications of a territorially divided result;  the lack of planning for how withdrawal would be implemented; and the narrowness of the majority in favour of Leave.  These weaknesses may have contributed to a significant absence of ‘losers’ consent’ amongst Remain voters,  as well as a lack of realism about the choices and compromises that would need to be made in order to secure a withdrawal agreement. But these essentially procedural factors, important as they were, reflected and exacerbated much deeper tensions within the UK constitutional order. In this introductory chapter, we explore these deeper tensions, identifying four key sources of constitutional unease which have been exposed by Brexit: first, the UK’s fraught relationship with the European Union; second, strained territorial relations within the UK; third, Ireland’s complex relationship with the UK and the contested position of Northern Ireland; and, fourth, developing institutional tensions at the core of the UK constitution.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom
Constitutions Under Pressure
, pp. 1 - 18
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×