Nation-making and re-making: a response to Brice Dickson, ‘The protection of human rights in a United Ireland’

Brice Dickson’s ‘The Protection of Human Rights in a United Ireland’ ¹ demonstrates well the legal and doctrinal challenges that might arise in ensuring that, on the occasion of unification, there is no regression in rights protection for people in what is currently Northern Ireland. Dickson also offers solutions— there are, as he ably shows, ‘fixes’ that can be envisioned and pursued with relatively little legal complexity. Dickson thus demonstrates (a) that there are potential gaps in rights protection (substantive and procedural) which must be acknowledged if we are to ensure non-regression, and (b) that these gaps might be filled on the occasion of unification.