Unilateral change to the institutions of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement

Abstract

This article analyses the international legal obligations imposed on the United Kingdom (UK) and Irish Governments by the 1998 British-Irish Agreement (BIA) – the bilateral international treaty concluded between the two Governments as part of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement – and how they affect the manner in which different changes to the 1998 Agreement may be made. In particular, the article seeks to identify the outer limits imposed by the BIA on the sovereign Government’s ability to make unilateral changes to the Strand One institutions that depart from the 1998 text of the Multi-Party Agreement. Based on an analysis of the subsequent practice of the UK and Ireland since 1998, applying the international law rules of treaty interpretation, it is argued that while changes to the Strand Two or Three institutions will require the conclusion of a treaty or interpretative declaration by the two Governments to amend their obligations under the BIA and its implementing treaties, at least certain changes to Strand One institutions will not require action on the international plane to modify the BIA, due to the ambulatory nature of the obligation in Article 2 BIA. The article concludes by considering the limits on the ability of the sovereign Government to change the Strand One institutions unilaterally, and the implications of this analysis for reform of the 1998 Agreement, and for the governance of Northern Ireland within a united Ireland.