Brexit and Agriculture: Implementing a New Legal Framework for Agricultural Support

Abstract Brexit has the capacity to impact heavily on the agricultural sector across the United Kingdom in that it is a sector which has been both in receipt of substantial expenditure under the Common Agricultural Policy and subject to a pattern of close regulation at European Union level. This article will explore the legal implications for post-Brexit agricultural support, proceeding in three stages. First, there will be an outline of the current structure of the industry, with particular reference to its diversity in terms of physical landscape, operational scale and legal foundations. Secondly, there will be discussion of emerging policy within both central UK government and the devolved administrations. In this context, specific attention will be directed to the likely extent of funding and the proposed drive towards higher standards in environmental protection and animal welfare. And, in each case, account will also be taken of specific implications which flow from overarching World Trade Organization rules. Thirdly, there will be consideration of the potentially difficult issues which arise as a result of agriculture being a devolved matter, different policy imperatives already becoming evident across the constituent parts of the UK. For the present, the prospect is that a bespoke support regime will survive Brexit and, in this sense, agricultural ‘exceptionalism’ will continue. However, the more precise form of such a regime remains as yet work-in-progress and its realisation will present considerable challenges not only in political terms, but also by reason of the complex legal geometry in which World Trade Organization rules and the constitutional rights of the devolved administrations are weighty factors.