Governance for 'a place between': the multilevel dynamics of implementing the Protocol on Northern Ireland

英国脱欧意味着北爱尔兰（NI）位于英国和欧盟的交界处。这不仅仅是地理上的；《脱欧协议》及其《关于爱尔兰/北爱尔兰的议定书》将北爱尔兰置于欧盟之外，但受制于欧盟规则的地位。这个小地区虽然在形式上不属于欧盟，但实际上将部分参与欧盟的治理体系——而且是以其他任何地区或国家从未见过的方式。因此，《宣言》和《议定书》为制定政策和治理NI以及英国和欧盟提出了巨大的重大挑战。这也引发了关于合法性的重大问题。该议定书受到北爱尔兰各方的质疑，北爱尔兰的权力下放政府仍然脆弱（英国脱欧仍然是一个分裂的话题）。议定书中的民主同意机制意味着NI大会成员的投票（最早从2024年11月开始）可能导致议定书的核心要素被删除，这一事实加剧了不确定性。实施该协议将产生一种新的形式，我们将其定义为NI的“栖息”多层治理。考虑到脱欧后英欧关系和英国贸易政策的演变性质（这将影响议定书在NI中的实际影响），需要对这些动态安排进行映射和跟踪。本项目将做到这一点，并解释其含义和识别问题。它还将创造手段，使知情的关键利益攸关方能够共同找到解决这些问题的办法。这个雄心勃勃的项目将对多层次治理的学术研究做出重大贡献，但它也将检验一个关于如何通过解决问题来提高合法性的假设。此外，它将产生原始的和可比较的定性和定量数据，为影响NI的各级治理的决策者提供信息。这项研究和案例研究对英国脱欧后整个英国的治理质量具有重要意义。

Brexit means that Northern Ireland (NI) is located at the interface of the UK and the EU. This is not just in geographical terms; the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) and its Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland place NI in a position of being outside the EU but subject to EU rules. This small region, although formally outside the EU, will actually be partly in the EU governance system - and in a way never seen before by any other region or state.The WA and Protocol thus raise enormously significant challenges for policy-making and for governance in and of NI, as well as for the UK and the EU. It also raises big questions about legitimacy. The Protocol is contested by all sides in NI and devolved government in NI remains fragile (Brexit being still a divisive subject). Uncertainty is worsened by the fact that the democratic consent mechanism in the Protocol means that a vote by members of the NI Assembly (from as early as November 2024) could result in core elements of the Protocol being dropped.Implementing the Protocol will give rise to a new form of what we define as 'perched' multilevel governance for NI. Given the evolving nature of the post-Brexit UK-EU relationship and UK trade policy (which will affect the impact of the Protocol in real terms in NI), these dynamic arrangements need to be mapped and tracked. This project will do this, as well as explaining the implications and identifying problems. It will also create the means by which informed key stakeholders can together find solutions to those problems. This ambitious project will make a weighty contribution to scholarship on multilevel governance, but it will also test a hypothesis about ways to improve legitimacy through problem-solving. In addition, it will produce original and comparative qualitative and quantitative data to inform policymakers at all levels of governance affecting NI. This research and case study has major importance for the quality of post-Brexit governance across the whole UK.