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Brexit strategy

03 July 2019 / Lucy Pert , Adam Jacobs
Issue: 7845 / Categories: Features , Commercial , Brexit
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Need to Brexit a contract? Lucy Pert & Adam Jacobs provide a plan

  • The unique challenges posed by Brexit may leave parties with little choice but to litigate.
  • Since the 2016 referendum it has become increasingly common for parties to insert so-called ‘Brexit clauses’ into their contracts.

Brexit and particularly a ‘no-deal Brexit’, whereby the UK withdraws from the EU with no agreements in place regulating their future relationship, will affect many aspects of commercial life in Britain. In some circumstances, parties may well find that Brexit has impacted them in such a way that they are no longer able to perform their contractual obligations or that performance has become unduly onerous.

The legal mechanisms available under English law to parties who wish to discharge contractual rights without breach include material adverse change clauses, force majeure clauses and the doctrine of frustration. Although they operate in different ways, each is concerned with regulating the effects of unfavourable events on contractual performance.

Since the referendum in June 2016, some parties have also included Brexit-specific clauses

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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