Mr Justice Adrian Colton today dismissed both applications for judicial review, the first brought by unionist politicians including Jim Allister and the second brought by loyalist pastor Clifford Peeples.

The judge said that the making of treaties and the conduct of foreign affairs are matters of high-level politics which are unsuited to supervision by a court on a judicial review application.

Because of the substantial degree of overlap between the applications, the court heard Allister as the lead case and then subsequently dealt with additional matters raised by Peeples.

The applicants in Allister raised five grounds of challenge based on Article VI of the Act of Union 1800, section 1 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the democratic consent process in the 2020 Regulations, the European Convention on Human Rights, and EU law, all of which failed.