The UK’s territorial constitution is, at present, under a great deal of pressure. Those familiar with one force unsettling the devolution framework — the attempts to override the Northern Ireland Protocol — will no doubt recall the legislation that first countenanced a similar approach: the UK Internal Market Act 2020 (UKIMA). This piece of legislation is, however, once again causing its own stir, this time in the form ofa clash between Scottish and UK ministers over gene-editing regulations.
The UKIMA, in short, effectively deprives future provisions of devolved legislation—even within competence—of effect to the extent that they are incompatible with its “market access principles”. In other words, although such devolved legislation would remain law, its practical effect is limited by the application of the market access principles. The UKIMA, we suggest, contributes not only to a growing momentum towards a minimalist conception of devolution, but does so by fundamentally…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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