In previous blogs, I have discussed how to reference Statutory Instruments from Westminster, Scottish Statutory Instruments and Welsh Statutory Instruments. In this one, we will be looking at their equivalent in Northern Ireland – Statutory Rules (SRs). Once again, these are referenced in a similar way to the others with only a few differences. Also, remember that SIs made in UK Parliament at Westminster can still apply to Northern Ireland.
Before I explain how to reference SRs from Northern Ireland, I will go over some of the background of the Northern Ireland Assembly, what SRs are for and the reasons for using them. Again, do skip this part if you already know it!
Northern Ireland Assembly
The Northern Ireland Assembly is based in the Stormont Estate Parliament Buildings, on the east side of Belfast. Representatives elected to the Assembly are called Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and are elected from 18 different constituencies from across Northern Ireland. Six MLAs are elected from each Constituency, giving a total of 108 Members. These MLAs should represent the needs and interests of their constituents and work to bring these before the Assembly.
Inside the Assembly, debates will be chaired by a Speaker and 3 Deputy Speakers, who will also be MLAs. Before a vote can be taken on anything, there must be at least 10 MLAs present, including the Speaker. Most votes in the Assembly simply require a majority; however, those on more important issues, such as budget, require cross-community support. This means that there must be a majority from both the designated nationalist voting and the designated unionist voting.
The most recent Northern Ireland Assembly was created by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and its first MLAs were elected in June 1998. This was the result of the 1998 Belfast Agreement or Good Friday Agreement, following talks between the Northern Ireland political parties and Irish and British governments. The Northern Ireland Assembly was then confirmed by a 1998 referendum on the subject of the devolution of power to Northern Ireland.
The legislation made by the Northern Ireland Assembly is referred to as Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which you can read how to reference in my blog here. These Acts are not the same as law from Westminster as the Northern Ireland Assembly does not have these powers; nevertheless, it is definitely important to bear them in mind in your writing, especially if you are doing a comparison of law from different jurisdictions, or specifically writing about law in Northern Ireland.
These Acts will also only apply to Northern Ireland, whereas legislation from Westminster Parliament can apply to all of the UK, just England, or even just Northern Ireland.
It is important to remember that Northern Ireland had a Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972, so there are also Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Following the abolishment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1973, a Northern Ireland Assembly was briefly formed until 1974. This Assembly could make primary legislation known as measures. After this, a second assembly was formed from 1982 to 1986, but this had no law-making powers.
At present, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since January 2017, following disagreements between the two main parties in power – Sinn Féin and the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party). They were part of a power-sharing executive, but this has since broken down and left Northern Ireland without a sitting Assembly.
Stormont has been without an executive for over a year now and this means that most decisions for Northern Ireland are currently being made by civil servants. However, they can only do this on issues that are just part of the day-to-day running of Northern Ireland – any major decisions need to be approved by an executive. Talks to restore this are still ongoing.
What are Northern Ireland’s Statutory Rules?
Statutory Rules (SRs) have much the same function as Statutory Instruments (SIs) – they are designed to make law-making more efficient and be done with greater expertise. Simply put, they assign certain parts of drafting legislation to Members of the Legislative Assembly, rather than the whole Assembly discussing and drafting the piece of legislation.
This is more efficient as fewer MLAs need to be involved, not all of the Assembly, which means that drafting legislation takes less time. Assigning specific MLAs to draft means that the ones with the most experience and knowledge in this area can be chosen. This allows them to use their expertise to make the draft more accurate and relevant to what is needed.
How Do You Reference Northern Ireland’s Statutory Rules?
The method for referencing SRs is very similar to that for SIs. As a reminder, the format of SIs is:
Name | Year, | SI Number
For example:
Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI 2004/3166.
The format for SRs is:
Name | (Northern Ireland) | Year, | SR Number
For example:
The River Bann Navigation Order (Northern Ireland) 2010, SR 2010/126.
As you can see, all that has changed is that Northern Ireland is added in brackets after the title and the number is an SR one rather than an SI one.
So, there are four parts to the reference. The first part is the name which can be abbreviated, as you can read in my blog OSCOLA Referencing Summary for Statutory Instruments.
Next, simply write Northern Ireland in brackets to indicate that this is a Northern Irish SR.
After this comes the year, which is the year of the SR.
You also need to put in the SR number at the end, after a comma. This is made in a similar way to an SI number by combining the year of the SR with its unique running number.
An SI made at Westminster that applies to Northern Ireland should simply be cited as a normal SI.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, SRs from Northern Ireland can be treated similarly to Westminster SIs for referencing purposes. This post finishes all the types of statutory instruments that there is guidance for in the OSCOLA system, so hopefully you feel more confident about using them now.
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