Brexit after the negotiation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Who takes back control of what?

Abstract

It seems to have finally happened. Nearly five years after the Brexit referendum (June 2016), the United Kingdom has taken back control of its own laws by exiting, on 1 January 2021, the transition period set up by the Withdrawal Agreement. EU law no longer applies, and nor does the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Those are the headlines that Leavers embrace as making good on the Leave campaign’s promises. The full force of EU law is gone, and instead comes what is primarily a trade relationship between what the UK Government likes to denote as “sovereign equals”. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the TCA) is indeed, in many