Legal Frames for socio-economic cooperation on island of Ireland: incrementalising approximation through using the "Protocol"?

If there is one "Brexit" document which has been debated thoroughly, it certainly is the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. Yet the question whether it provides a suitable frame for socio-economic and civic cooperation on the island of Ireland, or can be developed in that direction, remains underexplored. This article makes a provocative proposal. as long as its constituent parts are partially within and without the EU, the island of Ireland needs a more comprehensive legal frame than offered by the Protocol, even if taken together with the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, the remainder of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK. It goes on to develop such a frame below the threshold of the UK rejoining the EU or Northern Ireland rejoining Ireland, based on the fairly optimistic proposition that agreements between a state, e.g. the UK and the EU are capable of a reliable legal frame for cooperation in societies.