Brexit and the future of the Common Travel Area

Brexit Brits Abroad

In this episode Michaela talks over the line with Aoife O’Donoghue, Professor of International Law and Global Governance, Durham University (https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/staff/display/?id=5868) and Colin Murray, Reader in Public Law at Newcastle University (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/staff/profile/colinmurray.html#background), about the special relationship between Britain and Ireland and in particular, the Common Travel Area. The CTA has meant that Irish citizens living the UK and British citizens living in Ireland have been treated not as foreigners or aliens, but as equivalent to citizens of each those states. But this has been a nebulous arrangement that for various reasons has always operated informally. And yet, the future rights of these citizens in light of Brexit rest upon this arrangement. As they discuss, this has led to a scrabble to get the CTA updated. With Brexit fast-approaching, and continuing political uncertainty in Westminster, the race is on to get legislation in place to secure in law the protections offered by the CTA.

You can read more about Aoife and Colin’s work on the CTA in their recent report (http://www.nihrc.org/publication/detail/discussion-paper-on-the-common-travel-area)