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Slovenian Elections: The New, the Old and the Unknown

Andreja Pegan (University of Primorska) On Friday, 13th May 2022 a new parliamentary term commenced in the Slovenian National Assembly after April’s general elections. The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), the party of Janez Janša lost, while keeping its vote share steady. The election was welcomed by EU Rule of Law advocates (much like the previous Czech…
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The Irish unification debate after the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections

Oran Doyle (Trinity College Dublin) The International Association of Constitutional Law hosted a blog symposium in 2020 on the constitutional dimensions of Irish unification. The Belfast / Good Friday Agreement of 1998 provides that Irish unification will occur if consent is democratically and concurrently given, both in Northern Ireland and in Ireland. A referendum would…
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The NI Assembly Elections: Moving Forward (While Appearing to Go Backwards)

Niall Moran (DCU) The results of the May 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election were a historic outcome and a positive one for supporters of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin topped the poll, a first for a nationalist party in Northern Ireland. The centrist Alliance Party increased their first preference vote share…
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In Northern Ireland, the DUP Faces a Narrow and Treacherous Post-Election Path

Colin Murray (Newcastle Law School)   The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election has long been bound up with the future of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, the part of the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement which makes special arrangements for Northern Ireland’s post Brexit relationship with the EU. This was inevitable; Article 18 of the…
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An Historic Northern Ireland Election

Professor John Doyle (DCU) The results of the Northern Ireland Assembly election, which have seen Sinn Féin become the most popular party in Northern Ireland, with the right to nominate the First Minister, are truly historic.  The boundaries of Northern Ireland were defined 101 years ago, in an attempt to ensure a permanent unionist majority. …
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Election Day in Northern Ireland

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) Today is election day in – to give the state its full name – the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Yet the consequences of the vote will be much greater in the latter than in the former. One one hand, the results of the vote in Great…
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Rethinking Ireland’s Defence for New Insecurity in Europe

Eoin Micheál McNamara (Finnish Institute of International Affairs) eoin.mcnamara@fiia.fi    In a recent Irish Times article, retired Defence Forces (DF) officer Dorcha Lee recalled a startingly honest claim attributed to T.K. Whitaker, the senior civil servant acclaimed for his contribution to policies that renewed Ireland’s economic development during the 1950s. In Lee’s account, Whitaker interpreted…
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Russia’s Suspension from the UN Human Rights Council

David Keane (DCU) On 7 April, the UN General Assembly took the ‘extraordinary step’ of adopting a resolution calling for the Russian Federation to be suspended from the Human Rights Council (HRC). The vote received the requisite two-thirds majority of those voting in the 193-member Assembly, with 93 voting in favour and 24 against (with…
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Ukraine has Utterly Changed the Politics of EU Enlargement

Iain McMenamin (DCU) No country has ever before fought a war to enter the European Union. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s heroic response, and its President’s inspiring emphasis on Ukraine’s European future, have utterly changed the politics of enlargement. This new politics of enlargement will restart the debate on deepening and widening in the European…
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Towards a Transatlantic Data Privacy Framework

Edoardo Celeste (DCU) The EU-US data transfer saga continues. Despite two historical decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) invalidating the data transfer mechanisms put in place by Brussels and Washington, the two partners have recently announced a third attempt to introduce a framework for transatlantic data transfer. On 25 March, US…
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After the Hungarian Elections, What is the Way Forward for the Opposition?

Viktor Zoltán Kazai (CEU) On 27 January 2022 I had the honor to participate in a panel discussion on “Eastern European Perspectives on the Rule of Law Crisis and Constitutional Change” organized in the framework of the BRIDGE Network’s 8th conference. I started my presentation by saying that the European Union had proved unable to…
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24 Years Later

Feargal Cochrane (University of Kent) In the television action series 24, every season was comprised of 24 episodes, each one a consecutive hour of a crisis, when the flawed hero, counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer, tried to stop the bad guys and save the day. Sometimes his methods were questionable, the multiple plot lines could be…
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After 24 Years, the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement is Perilously Wobbling

Katy Hayward (Queen’s University Belfast) One of the more unusual similes I have ever heard was a senior Irish official’s description of the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement as being like a “blancmange”. He was attempting to describe its soft and smooth qualities which made it as easy as possible for all parties to swallow. …
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A Guide to the French Presidential Elections

Théo Fournier (European University Institute) Presentation of the voting systems  This coming Sunday the French population will vote in the first round of the presidential elections. The French presidential elections are a two-round majoritarian system: if no candidate garners more than 50% of the vote during the first round, the two candidates with the largest…
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Vision and Devastation: What Europeans Should Learn from the War in Ukraine

Erik Jones (European University Institute) Of course, there are many lessons that we should all learn from the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine right now – about brutality and violence, but also about solidarity and courage.  None of these lessons are new.  All command our attention.  But one lesson is likely to go overlooked.  That lesson…
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Event Report: The War in Ukraine and the Future of the EU

Ian Cooper (DCU) On Thursday 31 March 2022, the DCU Brexit Institute held an event on “The War in Ukraine and the Future of the EU”. The event was focused on the implications of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine on the future of EU integration and security. The event was introduced by welcoming remarks from…
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Legal questions surrounding EU sanctions of Russia

Niall Moran (DCU) Since 21 February 2022, the EU and its Member States have adopted a mixture of sanctions against Russia. These sanctions have been far-reaching, covering the five main types of targeted sanctions including sanctions on the banking system, commodities, sectors such as aviation and luxury goods, as well as sanctions on high-profile individuals…
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The Rise of Regional Groups in the EU

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has highlighted an important development in the politics of the European Union (EU) – the increased activity of regional groups of member states. The invasion provoked strong condemnation not only from the European Union (EU) as a whole (as seen last week’s European Council meeting)…
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The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis: Consequences for Europe

Jan Grzymski (Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw) The Russian aggression against Ukraine has caused the greatest emergency mobility of the civilian population since the end of World War II. Within one month, more than 3,5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine and 6,5 million have had to relocate within Ukraine itself.…
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