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NORTHERN IRELAND IN
INTERNATIONAL LAW
There are two interesting articles on Northern
Ireland from the standpoint of International Law
in
The Tablet
of 4th October 1969 and of llth
October 1969, by Mr. D. H. Johnson, Professor of
International Law in the University of London.
Prima jade,
the Irish question
is
typically re
garded as a single, continuing and virtually in
soluble problem. No mention is made of Article 2
of the Constitution which grandiloquently declares
that "the national territory consists of the whole
island of Ireland,
its
islands and its
territorial
seas", and the existence of the border as a problem
is not discussed.
The Cameron Report confirmed the well-docu
mented existence of discrimination in the North
but it is stressed that the International Conven
tion on the elimination of all forms of Racial
Discrimination passed by the United Nations in
1966, but not yet ratified, does not apply to the
Six Counties. As regards breaches of the European
Convention of Human Rights perpetrated by the
existence of the Special Powers Acts, one can only
conclude that Dr. Johnson's view as to the im
portance as to how this Act is applied in practice
appears to be narrow, as the Cameron Report has
clearly shown that the Special Powers Act violates
at least 4 Articles of the Convention and the
Hunt Report has called for the abolition of this
Act. It would in fact have been more appropriate
for the Irish Government to arraign the British
Government before the effective Commission and
the Court of European Human Rights, but the
difficulty was
that
the
Irish Government had
attempted to defend similar excessive and un
necessary permanent emergency provisions in the
Lawless case. Another legal alternative open to
the Irish Government would be to refer the ques
tion of the boundary dispute to the International
Court of Justice in the Hague, but it is unlikely
that the Government would admit that it has but
a limited sovereignity in this matter, particularly
in view of the unfortunate history of the Boundary
Commission in 1924-25. The omens would thus
not seem to be too favourable to Ireland to assert
its case successfully before an International As
sembly or Tribunal.
What are
the
alternatives
then?
Professor
Johnson discusses the following possible solutions:
1. The Maintenance of the status quo is rejected
as it is realised that it provokes a source of
grievance in the Republic and amongst the
Nationalist minority
in
the North and it
would become progressively more difficult to
ensure human rights in the North, whether
the Six Counties are governed from Stormont
or directly from Westminster.
2. The Irish Government has proposed that an
International Police Force, whether an Anglo-
Irish force or a United Nations force, should
be sent to the North to control the situation.
Even if the British Government were disposed
to accede to this proposal, which it is un
likely to do, it would of necessity be but
a short-term solution. If a United Nations
force were sent, it is unlikely that the majo
rity of members of the United Nations would
pay for it.
3. The idea of a Condominium which involves
the exercise of joint sovereignty over an area
by two or more States, is rejected as creat
ing formidable problems.
4. It would be possible to envisage, from the
British point of view, a new, shorter and
more defensible border for Northern Ireland
in the form of a new homogeneous partition,
comprising the counties of Down and An
trim, and parts of Armagh and Derry, where
there would be Unionist majorities. This new
partition
is not deemed practicable as
it
would seem to require the compulsory re
moval of Unionist minorities in Fermanagh
and Tyrone, and of Nationalist minorities
elsewhere, which would tend to create fric
tion.
5. The cession of the Six Counties to the Re
public is the only solution which in the long
run will satisfy Irish aspirations. In such an
event, an attempt should be made to reconcile
the Unionists, preferably by allowing them
to keep their subordinate legislature in Stor
mont,
subject
to water-tight
guarantees
against all kinds of discrimination. The Irish
Government would have the disadvantage of
having to subsidise a high proportion of un
employment, and social security contribu
tions at the same rate as in Britain, in the
Six Counties. It would obviously be imprac
ticable to add the Six Counties to the Re
public by way of sale for a definite sum of
money, as this would be an indirect form of
trading in human beings. If the cession is to
be made by mutual agreement between the
British and Irish Governments, it will ob
viously require a high degree of statesman
ship on all sides; whether this is in sight in
the foreseeable future remains to be seen.
6. It would theoretically be possible for
the
British Government to transfer its sovereignty
over Northern Ireland to the Republic, but
to rent it back, say for a period of years by
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