Essay by two lawyers is a shocking exposé of UK failures around the long and bitter legacy of decades of terrorism

The article is long and many people will consider it to be dry in content and terminology.

But make no mistake, it is a withering assessment of propsals to deal with the legacy of the Troubles, that came perilously close to reaching the statute book.

This newspaper and multiple contributors to it have detailed grave problems with the Stormont House agreement to deal with unresolved issues to do with the Troubles.

There is not enough space to recap on the various ways in which those structures would have turned against state forces who prevented civil war, but suffice to say that they have been well rehearsed on these pages.

Yet still, a supposedly Conservative and Unionist government sailed on towards disaster, pledging tens, perhaps ultimately hundreds of millions into investigations into the past, with a massively disproportionate focus on the state. It was thought at first that the Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) would bring some balance to a process that ought, after all, be looking at a long phase of violence in which 2,100 of the 3,700 dead were murdered by republican terrorists.

But over time huge problems with HIU began to emerge, and fears that it might further exacerbate that imbalance.

It is extraordinary and shocking to see Neil Faris and Peter Smith lay bare the fundamental problems with HIU, and how it would be a “gross violation of justice” by allowing police officers (indeed people who are not even police officers) to adjudicate on the failures of others without a fair hearing.

Yet these disastrous plans were included by the outgoing secretary state of state Julian Smith as part of the deal to restore Stormont, when in fact the secretary of state led people to believe they would not be part of the talks. And the Irish government, and a range of other voices, have made clear that they plan to hold the UK to this.

• A link to a news report summary of the essay is here

• The full essay by Neil Faris and Peter Smith QC