LECTURE 11 – IMPACT OF BREXIT ON THE UK’S LEGAL SYSTEM
Timeline of Brexit:
- 2016, 23rd June: Brexit referendum (51.89% voted to leave)
- 2017, 29th March: official withdrawal notification from the UK government
- 2017, 19th June: start of the EU/UK negotiations on withdrawal
- 2018, 23rd March: publication of guidelines for the future relationship between EU/UK by the
European Council
- 2018, 14th November: draft withdrawal agreement between EU and UK
- 2019, 30th March: expiry of original two-year period to negotiate withdrawal agreement
- 2019, 17th October: revised draft withdrawal agreement between EU and UK
- 2020, 30th January: withdrawal agreement ratified
- 2020, 1st February: UK is no longer an EU MS. Withdrawal agreement enters into force.
Commencement of the transition period.
- 2020, 2nd March: start of negotiations on new partnership between EU and UK
- 2020, 24th December: draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement
- 2020, 31st December: end of transition period (during which the UK was still part of the
single market and customs union)
- 2021, 1st January: customs border between UK and EU. Provisional entry into force of Trade
and Cooperation Agreement
- 2021, 1st May: entry into force of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement
Where are we now?
- The UK left the EU on January 32st, 2020 under the terms of a negotiated divorce deal,
bringing to an end 47 years of British membership of the EU and the institutions that
preceded it.
Causes of Brexit
- Supremacy of EU law
o Hostility to the European project, which enforce the supremacy of EU law over the
UK legal system.
- Immigration
o EU’s ‘freedom of movement’ principle led to millions of EU citizens moving to the UK
to work and settle.
- National sentiment and frustration with traditional politics:
o Has led to the debate over the role of the nation-state and the rise of populism (a
political movement that champions the concerns of ordinary people as opposed to
the perceived elite) in an age of globalisation
- International strains with the UK’s individual countries:
o England (53%) and Wales (52.5%) voted to leave the EU, whereas Scotland (62%)
and Northern Ireland (56%) voted to remain
Note: Northern Ireland is governed by the Northern Ireland Protocol which
enables the country to be governed by many EU laws and is still part of the
, EU’s single market but this creates a trade barrier with England, Scotland
and Wales who have left the single market.
Immediate impact of Brexit
- Released from EU trading and ‘free movement’ rules, the UK has been introducing its own
policies on trade and immigration
- Other changes now affect people, travel and business, but EU nationals already living in the
UK and Briton residents on the continent have the right to remain (but for some the future is
uncertain)
- The UK’s departure from the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union has brought significant
disruption to trade, particularly to UK exports to the EU, due to new border rules and red
tape.
- A last-minute deal on post-Brexit trade and future EU-UK relations allows for tariff-free,
quota-free access to each other’s markets for goods (but not services). It also covered future
competition, fishing rights, and cooperation on matters such as security.
- Despite formal agreements, relations have been strained.
o London and Brussels have clashed over fishing, diplomatic representation,
coronavirus vaccine exports and new arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Impact on UK citizens
- UK nationals are not EU citizens
- Free movement of people and goods from the UK to European countries is uncertain
- Workers movements and rights from the UK to European are also uncertain
- The UK is no longer bound by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which also
means UK nationals no longer have a court above the UK supreme court to appeal if their
rights are infringed (although this is within the context of EU law)
- The UK is still a member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is not related
to EU law but there may be effects on the importance given to human rights in the UK.
UK and Human Rights
- The main piece of legislation to uphold human rights in the UK is the Human Rights Act 1998
(HRA) - the act gives effect to the European Convention on Human Rights in UK law
- The ECHR is an international treaty the UK signed in 1950, which holds that States signed up
committed to upholding certain fundamental rights. The HRA enables people to bring cases
in UK courts in order to uphold their ECHR rights.
- There is no direct connection between the UK’s membership in the ECHR and membership
of the EU, so Brexit potentially has no direct impact on the UK’s obligations under the ECHR.
European Court of Human Rights
- The ECHR hears cases related to the European Convention on Human Rights
