Policy Inertia and the Persistence of Systemic Fragility

Many observers have diagnosed a fundamental shift in financial regulation since the 2008 crisis. In contrast, this article argues that changes have mostly been superficial. The ideas underpinning regulation have been adapted rather than overturned. Our financial system remains highly fragile, even if exceptionally loose monetary policy obscures such fragility temporarily. Governments show little appetite to correct the lopsided relationship between the financial sector and the real economy and turn the sector into a reliable engine of prosperity and stability rather than a continued source of systemic risk.     

Partition by Degrees: Routine Exceptions in Border and Immigration Practice between the UK and Ireland, 1921–1972

Using archival materials, we reflect on the legal process of creating (and mitigating) a border in Ireland after partition in 1922 and interactions between those laws and the people whom they affected. After 1922, superficially durable exceptions developed to the territorial state's distinctions between citizens and foreign nationals under the aegis of the Common Travel Area. They survived the 1930s UK–Ireland ‘Economic War’, were sustained (if in a restricted form) during the Second World War and were rebuilt in its aftermath. These arrangements proved beneficial for both countries, providing an outlet for surplus labour for Ireland and a resource for the UK economy. We nonetheless explore how far practice reflected this overarching cooperative framework, particularly given the complications introduced by the policies of Northern Ireland's institutions.