Brexit, Rights and Devolution

Abstract

This report records the final meeting and roundtable of the Brexit and Rights Engagement Network (BREN) on Friday 7 December 2018 at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in London. Attendees at the roundtable included network members, fellow academics, representatives of the UK Government, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, law firms, civil society, and NGOs. This roundtable followed two successful roundtables held at Edinburgh and Belfast earlier in the year. It combined the topics of both and brought all available network members together The purpose of the roundtable was to ignite debate amongst legal scholars and policy makers, and others working in a rights and devolution environment relating to interpretation, adjudication and enforcement of rights in the lead up to, and following “Brexit Day,” (29 March 2019). This report is split into four sections mirroring the programme of the day. Part A considers the adjudication of EU rights, but also their enforcement under the 2018 Act and the Withdrawal Agreement. Part B is dedicated to the same broad theme but focuses on ‘options for the postBrexit future’. Part C deals with possible development and opportunities as far as rights and devolution are concerned; and Part D shows how Brexit affects the devolution settlement. Most of the contributions to this and the other roundtables have been published as blog posts on the Europa Institute’s Europeanfutures blog. They can be found here: http://www.europeanfutures.ed.ac.uk/topics/bren Furthermore, there are audio recordings of the roundtable available, which can be found here: www.europa.ed.ac.uk/bren.