NI High Court dismisses no-deal Brexit legal challenge

A senior judge at the High Court in Belfast, Northern Ireland has dismissed a legal challenge against a no-deal Brexit.

The court heard arguments that a no-deal would have a negative effect on the peace process and endanger the Good Friday Agreement, however, the judge said the main aspects of the case were “inherently and unmistakeably political”.

Lord Justice Bernard McCloskey also said excluded a challenge against the proroguing of Parliament because the issue formed the “centrepiece” of proceedings in England and Scotland.

Delivering the judgment, McCloskey said: “Virtually all of the assembled evidence belongs to the world of politics, both national and supra-national.

“Within the world of politics, the well-recognised phenomena of claim and counter-claim, assertion and counter-assertion, allegation and denial, blow and counter-blow, alteration and modification of government policy, public statements, unpublished deliberations, posturing, strategy and tactics are the very essence of what is both countenanced and permitted in a democratic society.”

Cases heard in England and Scotland are heading towards the UK Supreme Court.

A UK government appeal against the ruling will be heard by the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court in London next week.

Lord Justice Bernard McCloskey added that the courts had to “respect certain boundaries”.