The great EU repeal

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Great Repeal Bill (GRB) may not be “as simple as suggested”, lawyers have warned.

The Bill, announced last week, will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and convert EU laws into UK law, allowing for reforms to be considered at leisure.

Charles Brasted, partner at Hogan Lovells, said: “This suggests that much regulation will remain the same immediately post-Brexit, save for some headline changes, and Parliament will have a formidable legislative or de-legislative task ahead of it.

“It also may not be as simple as suggested to transpose all relevant EU law, given the complex interrelationship between different types of EU legislation and regulation and domestic laws.”

Whatever happens, the UK is now likely to be trading on the basis of World Trade Organisation terms, potentially with a bespoke trade deal with the EU in certain areas of trade, once the post-Art 50 two-year negotiation ends, says Pinsent Masons partner Guy Lougher.

Meanwhile, the judicial review into the government’s authority to trigger Art 50 without Parliamentary approval is due to begin next week before the Lord Chief Justice and Master of the Rolls. Any appeal will leapfrog to the Supreme Court for hearing in early December. The case raises constitutional questions relating to the right of the Crown to use Royal Prerogative.

At the Conservative Party conference last week, May criticised the case as “anti-democratic”. However, David Greene, senior partner at Edwin Coe and NLJ consultant editor, who is acting in the case, hit back: “To the contrary, it is all about parliamentary democracy and it is the applicants who say that the government must bow to our parliamentary democracy.”