Brexit and Northern Ireland - A New Dimension to Differentiated Integration?

Brexit and in particular the UK’s anticipated withdrawal from the EU customs union and single market poses a multitude of economic and political as well as other challenges for Northern Ireland, much of which is encapsulated in the shared UK and EU commitments to avoiding a hard border and upholding the 1998 Belfast (‘Good Friday’) Agreement. Awareness of the challenges has led to calls for ‘flexible and imaginative solutions’ and therefore the possibility at least of some form of differentiated withdrawal for Northern Ireland. The paper explores related options, the emerging terms of withdrawal and the consequences of these for Northern Ireland, the island of Ireland, the UK and the EU. In doing so, it assesses the extent to which a new dimension to the study of differentiated integration is emerging; namely differentiated treatment of a territorially and constitutionally specific region of a non-member state.