The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 is a controversial Act of Parliament.  But sections 46 and 47 were not controversial when enacted. These two provisions were adopted unanimously by Parliament in response to the Supreme Court’s 2020 judgment in R v Adams, in which the Court wrongly allowed Gerry Adams’s appeal against his 1975 conviction for attempting to escape from lawful custody.

However, on February 2024, the Northern Ireland High Court ruled that section 46 and 47 were incompatible with Convention rights and exercised its power under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 to declare them incompatible.  In July 2024, the new Government abandoned an appeal against this declaration of incompatibility.  In December 2024, it exercised its power under section 10 of the 1998 Act to make a draft Remedial Order repealing sections 46 and 47.

This paper considers the High Court’s reasoning and shows that the Court was wrong to conclude that sections 46 and 47 were incompatible with Convention rights.  It argues that the Government was wrong to accept the declaration of incompatibility, wrong to abandon the appeal to the Court of Appeal, and wrong to decide to repeal sections 46 and 47 by ministerial order.  Parliamentarians should refuse to approve the draft Remedial Order.