NEW Westminster legislation reinstating the primacy of the Act of Union and making the Republic responsible for enforcing the EU's single market at the border are among proposals tabled as an alternative to the protocol.
Published by the Centre for the Union, a group set up last year to "protect our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", the document is written by its director Ethan Thoburn and blogger Jamie Bryson.
Its contents have been characterised as "rehashing unworkable fantasies".
The paper assesses the constitutional impact of protocol and includes potential remedies for what it terms the "damage" caused by the post-Brexit trade arrangements.
The authors say it is "designed to assist discussion" and does not represent a definitive solution.
However, it says there are "fundamental constitutional principles which cannot be the subject of negotiation", including the Acts of Union and the sovereignty of UK law.
"It is not for the United Kingdom to pay the price of the EU’s adoption of the nationalist demand that there can be no north-south border," it says.
"It is for the EU to protect their own single market, and if they wish to adopt arrangements compatible with the wishes of the Irish government/nationalism, then it is for the EU to absorb any associated risk with doing so."
As an alternative to the arrangements which are currently being discussed by the EU and British government, the document proposes a "UK Constitutional Bill", that would "entrench the supremacy of the Acts of Union" and restrict the Stormont assembly's ability to adopt legislation that may undermine the north's place in the union.
It also advocates ending the application of EU law in the north and creating cross-community measures in the assembly that could veto any further adoption of Brussels' rules.
The paper, which is reported to have "broad support" from the DUP and TUV, suggests restoring fully the north's place in UK’s customs territory and creating an ‘EU tunnel’ at the border which would see traders "self-declare" their adherence to EU standards.
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said the document "does not deserve to be taken seriously".
"As well as rehashing unworkable fantasies about post-Brexit arrangements, it makes basic errors in constitutional law," he said.
"For example, the Northern Ireland Assembly is not legally allowed to pass constitutional law under the devolution settlement but more broadly, this paper is a cynical attempt to seed hard right unionist taking points into discourse, from people who have always wanted to destroy the Good Friday Agreement."
