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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

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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