Northern Ireland protocol is lawful, court of appeal rules

From left: Jim Allister, Kate Hoey and Ben Habib outside the high court in Belfast after their appeal was dismissed. Photograph: Michael Cooper/PA

The Northern Ireland protocol of Brexit is not “simple or straightforward” but it is lawful, the court of appeal in Belfast has ruled.

Northern Ireland’s lady chief justice, Dame Siobhan Keegan, along with two other judges in the court, concluded that the protocol had not illegally trumped the Acts of Union 1800, which established Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, or elements of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which followed the peace deal that year.