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24 September 2020 / Professor Mark Engelman
Issue: 7903 / Categories: Opinion , Constitutional law , Patents
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Broken promises & the UK Internal Market Bill

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Mark Engelman outlines how the ‘Perfidious Albion’ of the government’s proposed intentions to breach an international treaty is nothing new

‘Perfidious Albion’, according to Wikipedia, is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations diplomacy to refer to alleged acts of diplomatic sleights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances formed with other nation states) by monarchs or governments of the UK (or England prior to 1707) in their pursuit of self-interest.

The government’s UK Internal Market Bill expressly admits to empowering:

‘Ministers to prevent the application of, and unilaterally re-interpret and disapply parts of the Protocol, as well as ignore their legal obligations under both domestic and international law to enact the Protocol.’

It goes on to explain that The Protocol is that part of the Withdrawal Agreement which sets out how goods will be traded between Northern Ireland and Great Britain (the rest of the UK) after the transition period ends.

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