May sets out Brexit priorities

Brexit means leaving the single market and leaving the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed.

In a major speech this week, May said the UK must be able to seek new trade deals elsewhere, and free to set “competitive tax rates”. The UK would either seek a new customs agreement or become an associate member of the customs union. May said there would be a “phased process of implementation”, but gave no indication of the time involved.

Andrew Langdon QC, Chairman of the Bar, said May’s speech underlined the importance of securing the best possible market access for the services sector, including legal services.

“Brexit must also deliver certainty for families and consumers,” he said.

“It is vital for UK citizens that judgments made in one country will be recognised and enforceable in another.”

Meanwhile, lawyers have raised questions about the future of civil justice co-operation with the EU once we leave the jurisdiction of the CJEU.

David Greene, partner at Edwin Coe, who is acting for Deir Dos Santos in the Art 50 case currently before the Supreme Court (to be decided on Tuesday 24 January), gave evidence on this subject to the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee last week.

Writing in NLJ, Greene says many litigators would prefer the UK to “agree and adopt, on a reciprocal basis, the Brussels Regulation (recast) and the Service Regulation, sign up to Lugano II and we adopt into domestic law Rome I and Rome II...We have to advise the government that this is not a perfect regime but it is tried and tested and should be largely retained within a UK model.”

Greene also predicts that a lengthy transition period may be required. “It seems a tall order to be stuffing all this into a two-year timetable when it appears the government has yet to make up its mind what it wants,” he says.

“For this reason we will probably need a transition period with sunrise and sunset provisions; sunrise on Brexit and perhaps a sunset two years later giving four years from the Art 50 notice.”