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All Out War (Pt 3): why has Brexit policy failed?

15 November 2018
Issue: 7817 / Categories: Features , Brexit
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​Can the Duke of Wellington stop Brexit?

  • With policymakers stymied by Brexit, a legal mechanism—the Victorian criminal offence of ‘open and advised speaking’ contained in s 3 of the Treason Felony Act 1848—could provide a way out.

Boris Johnson complained in September that ‘there has been a collective failure of government, and a collapse of will by the British establishment, to deliver on the mandate of the people,’ (Daily Telegraph, 28 September 2018). Lawyer and writer David Allen Green has also commented on this failure: ‘The Article 50 process means that the UK leaves the EU by automatic operation of law on 29 March 2019, unless something exceptional and currently unforeseeable happens. This is the fundamental legal truth which informs almost all the current politics about Brexit… [The] reason why legal (and legalistic) issues have become so important—almost determinative—in Brexit is because of the complete failure of UK policy’ (Jack of Kent blog, 11 September 2018). Professor Mark Elliott, an academic who

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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