Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly

Domino implications of corruption and money laundering in developing countries: a preliminary analysis on the way forward

Ejike Ekwueme, Okey Agu — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are numerous victims and consequences of corruption and money laundering (ML) in many developing countries (DCs). This article reiterates the conspicuous symbiotic relationship between corruption and ML, making it difficult to isolate them in financial crime. The article uses a doctrinal approach and relies on both primary and secondary documents in the analysis. Some of the documents are inclusive of but not limited to the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act 2011 and Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission Act 2000 and some pronouncements of the World Bank. It is incontestable that corruption and ML have devastating domino implications in DCs, particularly Nigeria, and the time is now ripe to increase efforts towards tackling this problem which has a strong potential to become even more serious. This article seeks to highlight the problem of ML in DCs and bolster efforts to reduce it.

Double-counting deference? The discretionary nature of declarations of incompatibility under the Human Rights Act

Alan Greene — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article argues that utilising the discretionary nature of declarations of incompatibility under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) as a form of ‘remedial deference’ is irreconcilable with the judgment’s reasoning in the first instance. Moreover, this manifestation of judicial deference does not align with any existing theory or justification of judicial deference; rather, it is to double-count the deference that has previously been factored into the judicial assessment regarding the compatibility of the provision with the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations in the first instance. Instead, the emphasis on the discretionary nature of declarations of incompatibility confuses the court’s proper function under the HRA to protect and vindicate human rights while simultaneously respecting parliamentary sovereignty. Judicial references to the concept of ‘dialogue’ as a means of assuaging concerns of undue deference fail to convince and, on the contrary, add weight to the contention that dialogue obfuscates rather than clarifies the correct role of the judicial function. The case law as to the discretionary nature of section 4 should therefore be treated as anomalous and an unfortunate judicial experiment.

Tenant rights under Ireland’s Residential Tenancies Acts 2004–2025

Sarah E Hamill — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In recent years a number of jurisdictions have sought to reform their landlord and tenant laws to provide enhanced protections for tenants. Ireland was one such jurisdiction, and it commenced its reforms relatively early, beginning in 2004. Since then, Ireland’s reforms have been both praised and echoed in other jurisdictions. Yet, Ireland’s Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2025 are not so highly praised within Ireland itself. In this article, I offer a critical re-reading of these Acts and their efforts to rebalance the landlord–tenant relationship in Ireland. While it is true that the Acts appear to grant many rights to tenants, they fail to ensure that these rights are adequately enforced or respected and they also fail to provide suitable punishment for those landlords who do not abide by the rules. I argue that there is scope to reform the Residential Tenancies Acts in a way which would both respect tenants’ housing rights and landlords’ property rights.

The Online Safety Act 2023: fostering democratic participation while combatting anti-democratic harms?

Helen Fenwick, Peter Coe — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article is the first to single out and analyse one specific aspect of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA): its ability to combat anti-democratic online content and practices. The original perception of the internet as an egalitarian, democratic, expression-rich environment, free of burdensome regulation and of the dominance of global ‘traditional’ media companies, has given way to a focus on the harms its ‘lawless’ nature are deemed to create. The idea that the availability of online platforms fosters free expression and therefore promotes the health of democracies is coming into conflict with concerns as to the anti-democratic impact of some online practices and content. The spread of false information online, as destabilising the democratic process and undermining faith in elections, is far from the only concern, but it is a highly dominant one. As a result, intense pressure has been placed on governments globally to combat such anti-democratic tendencies, largely via regulation of online content. That pressure was one of the driving factors behind the introduction of the OSA in the United Kingdom. It was presented as creating a new model of sanitising internet governance, able, inter alia, to address online harms inimical to the health of democracy while preserving content of democratic importance. This is the first article to question its success in that venture, by interrogating the OSA, mainly in terms of its ability to create curbs on anti-democratic online content and practice (in particular, algorithmic tendencies), while also demonstrating efficacy in navigating the tensions between the creation of such curbs and the promotion of such content.

Legal archaeology: reconstructing a case study of the Gujarat High Court Bullet Train Judgment

Gitanjali Nain Gill, Falguni Joshi, Mahesh Pandya — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article employs legal archaeology as the methodology to review the Jigarbhai Amratbhai Patel v State of Gujarat (2019 Bullet Train Judgment) in the Gujarat High Court. It assembles a novel case study in a manner that respects its unique, subjective and formal origins while showcasing its diverse past. The litigation concerned the dominant choice between public interest and private property rights in compulsory land acquisition. Melding the official report and unofficial sources, legal archaeology focuses on the relationships between the internal operations of the court and the general social, political, and cultural elements that influenced its decision-making. Stories and lived experiences are powerful means to open fresh perspectives on reality, develop a richer narrative, and pose different, and significant queries. Emma Nottingham’s phased methodological approach to the legal archaeology and its application to the Bullet Train Judgment reveals that the genesis of the judgment is not singular but prismatic.

Human trafficking, intersectionality and the relationship between Articles 4 and 14 of the ECHR

Jason Haynes — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This comment examines the landmark European Court of Human Rights case of FM and Others v Russia (2024), which assessed the relationship between Articles 4 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the context of human trafficking and related forms of exploitation. The case involved five Central Asian women subjected to severe labour exploitation in Russia, where authorities repeatedly failed to investigate their claims or offer protection. The court found that Russia violated its positive obligations by condoning trafficking and labour exploitation. While welcoming this watershed ruling, the comment expresses some disappointment at the court’s incomplete engagement with intersectional discrimination, arguing that the judgment focuses primarily on gender and migrant status while neglecting other factors like ethnicity and social position. It also highlights the court’s missed opportunity to fully articulate the role of human dignity in anti-trafficking adjudication, despite acknowledging its importance in passing.

The renaissance of human dignity?

Rt Hon Lord Justice Bernard McCloskey — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The right to human dignity is tantalisingly elusive, refreshingly undefined, potentially virile and incontestably responsive to changing societal conditions: just the recipe for common law judges worldwide. In a landmark Northern Ireland human rights case, this fundamental and universally recognised, though occasionally neglected, right, of impeccable lineage and credentials, has had something of a renaissance. There is surely ample scope for its resurgence and development in both domestic and global contexts, legal and otherwise.

The birth of a ‘tacit’ constitutional convention: The Collaborative Constitution and the effect of a declaration of incompatibility

Robert Craig — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Review of The Collaborative Constitution by Aileen Kavanagh.