The judicial reviews were brought by victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord and a cross-community group of MLAs from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and the Green Party.

This morning, Mr Justice Paul Maguire ruled that there was nothing to suggest the UK government could not activate Article 50 without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.

Further, he said that parliamentary approval was not necessary to activate Article 50 as “the actual notification does not, in itself, alter the law of the UK” but merely represented “the beginning of a process which ultimately will probably lead to changes in UK law”.

In his judgment, he said: “On the day after the notice has been given, the law will in fact be the same as it was on the day before it was given. The rights of individual citizens will not have changed – though it is, of course, true that in due course the body of EU law as it applies in the UK will, very likely, become the subject of change.

“But at the point when this occurs the process necessarily will be one controlled by parliamentary legislation, as this is the mechanism for changing law in the UK.”

The UK government has welcomed the ruling.

A spokesperson told the BBC: “As we have always made clear, we stand by our commitments under the Belfast Agreement and the outcome of the EU referendum doesn’t change this.”

Yesterday, solicitor Ciaran O’Hare of McIvor Farrell Solicitors said: “The case breaks new legal ground. Therefore no matter how compelling the argument, the court may feel bound by precedent (existing law) and not able to make any positive ruling for Mr McCord.

“It is expected however that no matter what the result is that there will be appeal. This will, in all likelihood, be directly to the Supreme Court which is not bound by precedent.”