The Centre for Cross Border Studies begins a new Briefing Paper Series on ‘Brexit and UK-Ireland border’.

The Centre for Cross Border Studies begins a new Briefing Paper Series on ‘Brexit and UK-Ireland border’. The series consists of five papers, to be published on our website in the next few months, and develops an overview of the likely effects of Brexit on the future of the UK-Ireland land border. The present publication is the first in the Series. It serves the purpose of outlining a roadmap to the remaining papers in the Series. The paper also develops an understanding of the core features of the UK-Ireland border linked to its present-day functions and degrees of openness. A central idea in political discourse so far has been that post-Brexit the border must remain as ‘frictionless’ and as ‘invisible and open’ as possible. To understand what this means, however, and the conditions under which it is achievable, despite the UK leaving the European Union’s single market and customs union, we need to properly acknowledge what borders are and how they operate.

 

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