scholarly journals Who Had Their Cake and Ate It? Lessons from the UK’s Withdrawal Process and its Impact on the Post-Brexit Trade Talks

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 983-998
Author(s):  
Polly R. Polak
Keyword(s):  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
Trade Relationship ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Financial Settlement ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis Article highlights the legal and procedural restrictions a Member States faces during its withdrawal from the EU and subsequent talks on a future trade relationship by analyzing the unprecedented case of the UK. One such restriction consists of an obligation to negotiate withdrawal as a result of the principle of sincere cooperation. Other limits derive from the withdrawal process itself, designed as it was by the European institutions on the basis of a very scant Article 50 TEU. By then comparing the three substantive pillars of the EU-UK WA—citizens’ rights, the financial settlement, and the Irish border— with the UK’s initial negotiating red lines, I offer two conclusions: That the aforementioned constraints on the withdrawing state can significantly weaken the defense of its interests during its withdrawal process and that having to agree to important issues in a first and separate stage of “orderly withdrawal” talks also diminishes the state’s bargaining power with regards to the next stage of negotiating a future partnership with the EU.

2. Membership: Crisis, Conceptions and Challenges

EU Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 34-60
Author(s):  
Paul Craig ◽  
Gráinne de Búrca
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Academic Debate

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing students with a stand-alone resource. This chapter considers two important issues that have affected the EU in recent years: Brexit and the rule of law crisis. These issues are explored in the context of the considerations they raise about EU membership and resulting obligations. The discussion of Brexit covers the UK referendum and ensuing debate, Article 50 TEU, and the relevant Treaty provisions. It explores what the Brexit negotiations tell us more broadly about the EU, and describes the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration. The second half of the chapter is concerned with the rule of law crisis: the Treaty framework and membership obligations that flow therefrom, the problem posed by ‘rule of law backsliding’ by some Member States, and the different ways in which the EU has responded to this ‘backsliding’.

2. Membership: Crisis, Conceptions and Challenges

EU Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 32-58
Author(s):  
Paul Craig ◽  
Gráinne de Búrca
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Academic Debate

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing students with a stand-alone resource. This chapter considers two important issues that have affected the EU in recent years: Brexit and the rule of law crisis. These issues are explored in the context of the considerations they raise about EU membership and resulting obligations. The discussion of Brexit covers the UK referendum and ensuing debate, Article 50 TEU, and the relevant Treaty provisions. It explores what the Brexit negotiations tell us more broadly about the EU, and describes the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration. The second half of the chapter is concerned with the rule of law crisis: the Treaty framework and membership obligations that flow therefrom, the problem posed by ‘rule of law backsliding’ by some Member States, and the different ways in which the EU has responded to this ‘backsliding’.

The Law & Politics of Brexit: Volume II

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Financial Settlement ◽  
The Eu

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the withdrawal agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and the European Union to create the legal framework for Brexit. Building on a prior volume, it overviews the process of Brexit negotiations that took place between the UK and the EU from 2017 to 2019. It also examines the key provisions of the Brexit deal, including the protection of citizens’ rights, the Irish border, and the financial settlement. Moreover, the book assesses the governance provisions on transition, decision-making and adjudication, and the prospects for future EU–UK trade relations. Finally, it reflects on the longer-term challenges that the implementation of the 2016 Brexit referendum poses for the UK territorial system, for British–Irish relations, as well as for the future of the EU beyond Brexit.

European Union Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Horspool ◽  
Matthew Humphreys ◽  
Michael Wells-Greco
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Free Movement Of Goods ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Substantive Law ◽  
The Eu

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise and reliable guides for students at all levels. The eleventh edition of European Union Law provides a systematic overview of the European institutions and offers thorough, wide-ranging coverage of the key substantive law topics, including separate chapters on competition, discrimination, environmental law and services. It also features a new chapter on the EU and its relationship with third countries, including the UK. Incisive analysis of the governing themes and principles of EU law is consistently delivered, while chapter summaries, critical questions, further reading suggestions and the new ‘Brexit checklist’ feature help to guide the reader through the subject and support further research. Topics covered also include supremacy and direct effect, the European Courts, general principles, free movement of goods and persons and citizenship.

scholarly journals Features of transformation of legal entities in the conditions of Brexit

2021 ◽  
pp. 531-538
Author(s):  
Olha Ovechkina
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The State ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Actual Location ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Legal Entities

In connection with the decision to withdraw the UK from the EU a number of companies will need to take into account that from 1 January 2021 EU law will no longer apply to the United Kingdom and will become a "third country" for EU Member States, unless the provisions of bilateral agreements or multilateral trade agreements. This means that the four European freedoms (movement of goods, services, labor and capital) will no longer apply to UK companies to the same extent as they did during the UK's EU membership. The purpose of the article is to study, first of all, the peculiarities of the influence of Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union on the legal regulation of the status of European legal entities. Brexit results in the inability to register European companies and European economic interest groups in the UK. Such companies already registered before 01.01.2021 have the opportunity to move their place of registration to an EU Member State. These provisions are defined in Regulations 2018 (2018/1298) and Regulations 2018 (2018/1299).British companies with branches in EU Member States will now be subject to the rules applicable to third-country companies, which provide additional information on their activities. In the EU, many countries apply the criterion of actual location, which causes, among other things, the problem of non-recognition of legal entities established in the country where the criterion of incorporation is used (including the United Kingdom), at the same time as the governing bodies of such legal entities the state where the settlement criterion is applied. Therefore, to reduce the likelihood of possible non-recognition of British companies, given the location of the board of such a legal entity in the state where the residency criterion applies, it seems appropriate to consider reincarnation at the actual location of such a company. Reducing the risks of these negative consequences in connection with Brexit on cross-border activities of legal entities is possible by concluding interstate bilateral and multilateral agreements that would contain unified rules on conflict of law regulation of the status of legal entities.

The UK's Withdrawal from the EU

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Dougan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
The Future ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

Following a national referendum on 23 June 2016, the UK announced its intention to end its decades-long membership of the EU. That decision initiated a process of complex negotiations, governed by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, with a view to making the arrangements required for an ‘orderly Brexit’. This book explores the UK’s departure from the EU from a legal perspective. As well as analysing the various constitutional principles relevant to ‘EU withdrawal law’, and detailing the main issues and problems arising during the Brexit process itself, the book provides a critical analysis of the final EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement—including dedicated chapters on the future protection of citizens’ rights, the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the prospects for future EU–UK relations in fields such as trade and security.

Article 50 TEU: The Quest for an Orderly Withdrawal and the Possibility of Alternative Denouements

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-47
Author(s):  
Michael Dougan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This chapter sets out the basic constitutional framework, under EU law, governing the withdrawal of a Member State. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union recognizes the sovereign right of any State to leave the EU and sets out a process for agreeing the terms of an orderly departure. But Brexit also required the EU and the UK to undertake extensive internal preparations, to ensure their own legal systems were ready for the UK’s departure. Moreover, Article 50 itself is drafted in only brief and sketchy terms, leaving many important decisions about Brexit to be worked out in practice. And EU law allows for other final outcomes to the withdrawal process—including a ‘no deal Brexit’; or the UK’s right to ‘revoke and remain’ under the Wightman ruling.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Federico Fabbrini
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Withdrawal Agreement of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). The Withdrawal Agreement, adopted on the basis of Article 50 Treaty on European Union (TEU), spells out the terms and conditions of the UK departure from the EU, including ground-breaking solutions to deal with the thorniest issues which emerged in the context of the withdrawal negotiations. Admittedly, the Withdrawal Agreement is only a part of the Brexit deal. The Agreement, in fact, is accompanied by a connected political declaration, which outlines the framework of future EU–UK relations. The chapter then offers a chronological summary of the process that led to the adoption of the Withdrawal Agreement, describing the crucial stages in the Brexit process — from the negotiations to the conclusion of a draft agreement and its rejection, to the extension and the participation of the UK to European Parliament (EP) elections, to the change of UK government and the ensuing constitutional crisis, to the new negotiations with the conclusion of a revised agreement, new extension, and new UK elections eventually leading to the departure of the UK from the EU.

The EU during Brexit

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-34
Author(s):  
Federico Fabbrini
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
Member States ◽  
Decision To Leave ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This chapter analyses the European Union during Brexit, explaining how the EU institutions and Member States reacted to the UK’s decision to leave the EU. It outlines how they went about this in the course of the withdrawal negotiations. The EU institutions and Member States managed to adopt a very united stance vis-à-vis a withdrawing state, establishing effective institutional mechanisms and succeeding in imposing their strategic preferences in the negotiations with the UK. Nevertheless, the EU was also absorbed during Brexit by internal preparations to face both the scenario of a ‘hard Brexit’—the UK leaving the EU with no deal—and of a ‘no Brexit’—with the UK subsequently delaying exit and extending its EU membership. Finally, during Brexit the EU increasingly started working as a union of 27 Member States—the EU27—which in this format opened a debate on the future of Europe and developed new policy initiatives, especially in the field of defence and military cooperation.

3. The relationship between European Union and United Kingdom competition law

2019 ◽  
pp. 57-75
Author(s):  
Sandra Marco Colino
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Competition ◽  
Current Interaction ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

This chapter focuses on the current interaction between European Union and UK law. EU law is currently a source of UK law. However, the relationship between the two regimes is expected to change in the future as a consequence of the UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 stipulates that the European Communities Act 1972 will be ‘repealed on exit day’, which would be 29 March 2019 provided that the two-year period since Article 50 TEU was triggered is not extended. Once the European Communities Act 1972 has been repealed, EU law will cease to be a source of UK law. No major immediate changes to the national competition legislation are to be expected, but future reforms could distance the UK system from the EU rules.

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