Colin Harvey

The Frontiers of Legal Analysis: Reframing the Transition in Northern Ireland

British constitutional legal discourse is structurally limited in its capacity to capture the complexity of the Good Friday Agreement. Rather than assessing the Agreement in narrow devolutionary terms, it should be seen as a hybrid domestic and international law instrument, making an important contribution to accepted international law norms in relation to self-determination. The Agreement transforms and partly transcends the Northern Ireland conflict by substituting political contestation for violent conflict, and by defining the modalities of conducting that contestation. This analysis complements classical international law perspectives, and opens up the application of legal discourses associated with ‘transitional justice’ to the legal and political transformation in Northern Ireland. These discourses focus on the problem of reconciling the demands of peace with the imperatives of justice. The Agreement sits squarely in this terrain with its provisions on ‘dealing with the past’ and ‘institutional legacies’. The insights gained here challenge orthodox thinking about conflict-management and the ongoing political process.

Dissident Voices: Refugees, Human Rights and Asylum in Europe

This article examines the law and politics of asylum in Europe. The aim is to explore both the construction of ‘Fortress Europe’ and the resistance within Europe to the dominant policy response. Human rights law now plays an important part in the struggle to secure decent treatment for asylum seekers in Europe. Its use has exposed serious problems with existing refugee law and policy. In examining the law and politics of human rights this article suggests that dialogic models of law are useful. In particular they bring back into the picture those individuals and groups which make change happen in practice. This allows us to ‘ground’ the discourses of human rights and refugee law much more securely within concrete political struggles over the terms of asylum policy. At a time when human rights lawyers are becoming part of the international ‘mainstream’, this article suggests that we must be alive to the importance of dissident voices that remain on the margins.

Governing after the Rights Revolution

In this paper I explore the relevance of neo-republican thinking for current debates in constitutional law. In particular, I am interested in how deliberative forms of law and democracy might be grounded in real-world institutional contexts. My thesis is that the neo-republican model, underpinned as it is by the values of equality, participation, and accountability, has both explanatory and critical potential when exploring the voices, spaces, and processes of constitutionalism. I test this argument with reference to constitutional change in Northern Ireland. It is evident that equality is the core value in the settlement reached, but it is in the combination of values that the potential and tensions will arise in the future. The provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 on equality are useful examples of how law might be shaped to include the voices of affected groups in the process of enforcing change in public administration. Laws role in this process is, however, more problematic than is often assumed. In this, and in other aspects of the settlement, there are lessons for others who are presently reflecting on the constitutional future in the new devolutionary contexts.

Seeking asylum in the UK : problems and prospects

1. Doing justice to strangers: an introduction to the law and politics of asylum 2. The international context: an emerging human rights framework? 3. Mapping the Europeanisation of asylum law 4. Regulating asylum (I): the law and politics of asylum in the UK 5. Regulating asylum (II): the legal construction of refugee status and human rights protection in the UK Conclusion.

Context, institution or accountability? Exploring the factors that shape the performance of national human rights and equality bodies

The past two decades witnessed a global proliferation of national human rights and equality bodies. Yet the research literature remains critical of their performance, positing a series of explanations for the gap between the expectations of civil society and the contribution they make. Through a comparative analysis of six statutory human rights and equality bodies in the United Kingdom and Ireland, this article explores the range of factors that shape their performance.

Contextualised Equality and the Politics of Legal Mobilisation: Affirmative Action in Northern Ireland

This article examines the development of affirmative action and equality policies targeted at the two main ethno-national communities in Northern Ireland, as an example of ‘contextualised equality’. The argument places particular weight on a politics of legal mobilisation. The article suggests that the ability to connect post-1998 reforms, in practical and symbolic ways, to overriding inter-communal narratives was often a determining factor in identifying those elements of the Good Friday Agreement which advanced, or were constructed as achievable. The argument has implications for understanding how equality debates will progress, and explaining why certain agendas appear to ‘succeed’ and others ‘fail’.

Voices, Spaces, and Processes in Constitutionalism

1. Integrative Models of Regulation: Internal Audits, Compliance and the a Internala Regulatory Space: Julia Black (London School of Economics and Political Science). 2. Constitutionalising Space: Europe and its Integration in to the Everyday: Damian Chalmers (London School of Economics and Political Science). 3. Constitutional Conversions: Mapping the Governance of the a New Northern Irelanda : Colin Harvey (Queena s University of Belfast). 4. Civility, Citizenship and the Government -- Voluntary Sector Compacts: John Morison (Queena s University of Belfast). 5. Informal Law and Diverse Cities: Evaluating the Use of Mediation in Neighbourhood Disputes: Linda Mulcahy and Lee Summerfield (University of North London). 6. Substantive Accountability in the Regulatory State: Colin Scott (London School of Economics and Political Science). 7. Process and Constitutional Discourse in the European Union: Jo Shaw (University of Leeds). 8. A New Paradigm for Corporate Governance? Aristotle, Solomon, Zig Bauman and Corporate Citizenship: Sally Wheeler (University of Leeds).

Mobilizing against neo-liberalism? Global affirmative action in context

This article uses the example of Northern Ireland to illustrate how political mobilization may be deployed to challenge structural forms of inequality. The experience suggests that regulatory models can be designed for particular contexts to shape approaches that present challenges to dominant economic and political orthodoxies. The intention is not to overstate the significance of this specific transitional context but simply to highlight elements that might feature in any attempt to mobilize successfully around human rights and equality, and against aspects of neo-liberal thinking.