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Anti-Brexit campaigner Raymond McCord has lost a Court of Appeal action against the Government over the Northern Ireland border.<\/p>\nAnti-Brexit campaigner Raymond McCord has lost a Court of Appeal action against the Government over the Northern Ireland border.<\/p>\n
He claimed the Northern Ireland Secretary\u2019s failure to set out circumstances in which he would direct the holding of a poll on unifying both parts of the island breached constitutional issues.<\/p>\n
Mr McCord has taken a series of separate proceedings concerning the alleged impact of EU withdrawal on the peace process and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
The court said: \u201cWe consider that it is for the respondent to decide what is, or is not relevant to the decision-making process depending on the prevailing circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court said there was no requirement for a policy in either the 1998 Belfast Agreement or in the legislation enacting it, the Northern Ireland Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather the exercise of those powers involve political judgment in the context of differing and unpredictable events.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccordingly, the court considered that a flexible response is required in accordance with the interpretative approach to the Northern Ireland Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said the Government\u2019s discretion to direct the holding of a border poll was \u201cunqualified\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr McCord\u2019s 22-year-old son, Raymond junior, was murdered by the Ulster Volunteer Force loyalist paramilitary organisation in Belfast in 1997.<\/p>\n
The victims\u2019 campaigner has expressed concern about the impact of Brexit on the peace process.<\/p>\n
Last September Mr McCord\u2019s legal action challenging the legality of a no-deal exit was dismissed.<\/p>\n
His lawyers were also allowed to speak at the Supreme Court as part of a case arguing that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.<\/p>\n
The trial judge in the lower court concerning this Court of Appeal case said it was clear that a border poll in Northern Ireland to produce the outcome of a united Ireland would have to be replicated by a vote producing the same outcome in the Republic.<\/p>\n
In a written summary of the judgment, the Court of Appeal said: \u201cThe court agreed with the trial judge that there is such an inter-relationship which must involve both governments and that any decision as to the holding of a border poll will involve extremely complex political considerations and if not carefully handled, taking account of prevailing circumstances, could give rise to great instability.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said the law did not specify any matter which should be taken into account or anything which should be disregarded in deciding to call a poll.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exercise of discretion must be preceded by the respondent\u2019s assessment of the prevailing circumstances which have and will change over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
That discretion must be exercised honestly and based upon the Government\u2019s assessment, using political judgment, of whether a border poll was in the public interest, the court added.<\/p>\n
It dismissed the appeal.<\/p>\n