The Practice of Public Law Northern Ireland

Overview

The objective of this course is to skill students up as practical public lawyers. This course builds on the public law courses taught at level one, namely Constitutional Law in Context and Rights and Accountability. It is designed to complement the students’ existing knowledge of the institutions of government and judicial review, with a practice-focussed grounding in the public law of Northern Ireland for those who wish to make it a career focus.

The current arrangements for devolved government in Northern Ireland are only twenty-two years old, and are based on a unique model of interlinking devolved, national and trans-national institutions. This course will provide the tools for those who wish to play a part in the public law sphere as a lawyer, judge, politician, civil servant, special advisor, lobbyist, activist or commentator. Whatever the individual’s career goals or political perspective, there is a common set of legal skills which are required to achieve social and political objectives through Northern Ireland’s political and legal institutions. Gaining an in-depth understanding of how to achieve things in the political space using Northern Ireland’s institutions will also provide transferable skills and comparative knowledge which will be of interest to students who wish to play a similar role in other jurisdictions.

The course leader is a senior government lawyer with insight into the worlds of government policymaking, legislation and judicial decision-making and the course will be rooted in practical examples that will allow the a group to explore how each aspect of the Northern Ireland devolved institutions work in the real world using examples drawn from the uniquely challenging context of Brexit, Covid restrictions and constitutional discontents in the United Kingdom and further afield. The legal underpinnings of Northern Ireland’s institutions of government are complex and sophisticated as a fighter plane. This course will allow students to get into the cockpit and experience how it operates in battle conditions.

Learning Objectives

1. Have an in-depth understanding of the Northern Ireland devolved settlement (NIDS) and the legal instruments which create it;
2. Have the ability to interpret and evaluate primary legal sources, both statutory and judicial.
3. Have an understanding of the NIDS in operation, and be able to apply that understanding to solving simulated practice tasks at each stage of the policy- and law-making process.
4. Apply legal knowledge in a range of different contexts and communicate it appropriately to different audiences.
5. Understand the NIDS as an example of constitutionalism, be able to critically evaluate strengths and weaknesses and apply learning to other contexts.
6. Understand the legal and ethical principles, and constraints, which govern the various actors in the public law space, and the significance of both ethical and legal accountability mechanisms.

Skills

1. Identify and analyse the factual context of legal problems, identify evidence gaps and evaluate reliability of factual narratives;
2. Build on existing research skills to identify and analyse relevant primary and secondary legal sources to solve legal problems.
3. Use online resources and social media to build an up-to-the-minute understanding of developing legal issues and debates, evaluating reliability of contributors accurately.
4. Analyse and apply legal doctrine to a factual matrix to develop solutions to legal problems.
5. Resolve competing arguments;
6. Synthesise legal knowledge from different sources with other kinds of evidence to generate achievable solutions to policy problems.
7. Understand the value of risk- and option-based analysis in solving legal and policy problems.
8. Judge critically and evaluate legal and policy options.
9. Apply existing knowledge of constitutional principle to critically evaluate student’s own solutions and responses to issues studied.
10. Act independently in planning and undertaking tasks.
11. Build skill in time management, prioritisation of tasks and resilience under pressure.
12. Demonstrate capability in team-working, allocation of tasks and collaboration in problem-solving.
13. Use specialist and technical language proficiently in relation to public law.
14. Present knowledge and argument clearly and persuasively for professional and non-specialist audiences alike.
15. Demonstrate understanding of the ethical and legal constraints on actors in the public law sphere.

Assessment

None