scholarly journals Does Brexit Spell the Death of Transnational Law?

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (S1) ◽  
pp. 51-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Michaels

Philip Jessup would not be pleased. Exactly sixty years after he published his groundbreaking book onTransnational Law, a majority of voters in the United Kingdom decided they wanted none of that. By voting for the UK to leave the European Union, they rejected what may well be called the biggest and most promising project of transnational law. Indeed, the European Union (including its predecessor, the European Economic Community), is nearly as old Jessup's book. Both are products of the same time. That invites speculation that goes beyond the immediate effects of Brexit: Is the time of transnational law over? Or can transnational law be renewed and revived?

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-120
Author(s):  
Anne Dennett

This chapter discusses UK membership of the European Union and the Brexit process. On 1 January 1973, the UK became a member of the European Economic Community, and the UK Parliament passed the European Communities Act 1972, allowing directly applicable European laws to take effect as part of UK domestic law which had an impact on parliamentary sovereignty. In the 2016 Brexit referendum, a narrow majority of the public voted in favour of leaving the European Union and the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 repealed the European Communities Act 1972 on exit day when the UK left the European Union. Brexit has made significant changes to the UK constitution including the creation of a new body of retained EU law in UK domestic law, an impact on devolution, and raising the question of whether it has been a sufficient constitutional moment to trigger a codified UK constitution.


Politics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiorella Dell'Olio

This article analyses the extent to which UK membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) has influenced the redefinition of the concept of nationality in the United Kingdom and the retreat from historical responsibility with respect to citizens of Commonwealth countries. After first describing the rights that have most defined nationality in the United Kingdom prior to its membership to the EEC, it is argued that the EEC has only indirectly influenced the redefinition of UK nationality in three main respects: (a) from the early 1970s, the issue of nationality has been a frequent subject of discussion in parliament; (b) at the same time, there was the need to define nationality for EEC law purposes; and (c) the establishment of European citizenship reinforced nationality not only because nationality represented a means by which to benefit from additional rights, but also because it became a foundation for the construction of subsequent immigration policy. The article suggests that the indirect effect of the EEC on the redefinition of nationality has also provided a legitimate means by which to reconsider the idea of citizenship first in terms of exclusion and inclusion and secondly in terms of detachment from historical responsibility.


Author(s):  
E. V. Khakhalkina

The UK European Union membership referendum 2016 and its results actualized the study of the British initiatives in the sphere of integration before the entry into the European Economic Community in 1973. The article is devoted to the little-known in Russian historiography "Grand Design"of H. Macmillan, nominated in the wake of the failure of the Suez operation against Egypt in 1956. Plan with such bright and eye-catching name suggested the creation of a broad integration group in Europe as alternative with Britain as a leader to the preparing for the establishment of projects of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic energy community. The project was designed to restore the prestige of the Conservative Party and to strengthen the shaky position of Britain in NATO and European affairs after Suez Crisis. At the same time the emergence of the plan reflected the desire of the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan to weaken the struggle inside political establishment between supporters and opponents of the country's full-fledged participation in the European integration and take the lead in the integration movement from France. Analysis of the content of the project and attempts to implement it within the framework of a Free Trade Area (FTA) reveals the essence of the "special position" of the UK towards supranational integration and the British vision of the future of European integration. Modern United Kingdom appeared in the new European realities after the Referendum on the country’s membership in the European Union and returns to the starting point on the path of supranational integration and to the search for its place in Europe. In these circumstances, the ideas expressed by British politicians more than half a century ago, may again prove to be demanded and relevant.


2019 ◽  
pp. 96-154
Author(s):  
Alisdair A. Gillespie ◽  
Siobhan Weare

This chapter discusses international sources of law. Conventions and treaties are the primary sources of international law. International law also relies on custom, that is to say informal rules that have been commonly agreed over a period of time. The United Kingdom joined the (then) European Economic Community (EEC) in 1972. As part of the conditions for joining, the UK agreed that EEC (now EU) law would become automatically part of the law of the United Kingdom. The principal treaties governing the EU are the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of European Union. Disputes are adjudicated by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Although the UK voted to leave the EU, it is not known when this will happen, meaning EU law will remain part of UK law for the time being.


Author(s):  
Ian Loveland

This chapter examines the way in which the UK’s membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) prompted changes in the domestic constitutional order. The discussions include the founding principles of the Treaty of Rome; the accession of the UK into the EEC; EEC law, parliamentary sovereignty, and the UK courts; and the horizontal and vertical effects of directives. The chapter explores the controversies engendered by the Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Lisbon Treaties; and concludes by assessing whether continued EC membership will entail a loss of the UK’s ‘sovereignty’ to a federal European constitution and a rebalancing of power within the constitution between Parliament and the courts.


Author(s):  
K. Gylka

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 28 European countries. The population is 508 million people, 24 official and working languages and about 150 regional and minority languages. The origins of the European Union come from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), consisting of six states in 1951 - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. These countries came together to put an end to the wars that devastated the European continent, and they agreed to share control over the natural resources needed for war (coal and steel). The founding members of ECSC have determined that this European project will not only be developed in order to share resources or to prevent various conflicts in the region. Thus, the Rome Treaty of 1957 created the European Economic Community (EEC), which strengthened the political and economic relations between the six founding states. The relevance of the topic stems from their desire of peoples and countries to live better. The purpose of the study is to identify the internal and external development mechanisms of European countries and, on this basis, to formulate a model of economic, legislative and social development for individual countries. The results of the study provide a practical guideline for determining the vector of the direction of efforts of political, economic, legislative, humanitarian, etc.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Kubin

The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union (so-called Brexit) is one of the most important events in the process of European integration. It has a lot of extremely remarkable implications – both for the EU and for the United Kingdom. Among other, Brexit will affect the security of the United Kingdom and the EU. The aim of the study is to answer the research question: how will Britain’s exit from the EU influence the EU common security and defence policy? In order to answer this question, the factors that are most relevant to the United Kingdom’s significance for the EU’s security and defence policy will be identified. This will show how the EU’s potential of the security and defence policy will change, when the UK leaves this organisation. The most important conclusions are included in the summary.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Stuart Ward

J. G. A. Pocock’s magnum opus, The Machiavellian Moment, seems an unlikely contender as an intimation of Brexit. Published in 1975, his study of the revival of classical Republicanism in Renaissance Italy and the struggle to uphold a universal ideal of active citizenship could not be further removed from Britain’s departure from the European Union forty-five years later. But the wider production context suggests that it might be worth probing the possible connections. This article examines Pocock’s protracted reckoning with Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community in the early 1970s amid the ruptures of empire’s end. It seeks to tease out the existential underpinnings not only of the latter-day exigencies of leaving but also of the persistent habit of harnessing that ambition to a reimagining of Britain’s global coordinates.


Author(s):  
Radovan Malachta

The paper follows up on the arguments introduced in the author’s article Mutual Trust as a Way to an Unconditional Automatic Recognition of Foreign Judgments. This paper, titled Mutual Trust between the Member States of the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit: Overview discusses, whether there has been a loss of mutual trust between the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit. The UK, similarly to EU Member States, has been entrusted with the area of recognition and enforcement of judgements thus far. Should the Member States decrease the level of mutual trust in relation to the UK only because the UK ceased to be part of the EU after 47 years? Practically overnight, more precisely, the day after the transitional period, should the Member States trust the UK less in the light of legislative changes? The article also outlines general possibilities that the UK has regarding which international convention it may accede to. Instead of going into depth, the article presents a basic overview. However, this does not prevent the article to answer, in addition to the questions asked above, how a choice of access to an international convention could affect the level of mutual trust between the UK and EU Member States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-164
Author(s):  
Richard Barnes

Abstract On 30 September 2020, the United Kingdom and Norway signed the Framework Agreement on Fisheries that will provide the basis for future cooperation in the sustainable management of their fisheries. The Agreement is the first such agreement adopted by the UK following its decision to the leave the European Union. This note provides some background to the Agreement and examines its key features. Whilst the content of the Agreement appears to be rather basic, this is broadly consistent with other framework agreements, and it does provide some insight into the direction and focus of fisheries management in the North Sea, and how cooperation may develop between coastal States and the European Union.


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