It’s a dramatic day for the UK as Brexit achieves a narrow win, Prime Minister David Cameron resigns, markets plunge, the pound drops in value, and the legal and business sectors react to the Brexit decision.
Philip Kolvin QC, head of Cornerstone Barristers, says: “The Brexit debate has been emotive and political. The consequences for our legal system have barely figured in it. But EU-inspired or mandated legislation is part of the bedrock of societal protection. I speak of health and safety, town and country planning, ecological protection, freedom of information, data protection, competition, discrimination, public procurement, indeed the very concept of proportionality which governs much of our regulatory system. Ahead of us lie profoundly significant legal questions.”
Sir Paul Jenkins KCB QC (Hon), former head of the Government Legal Service, predicts that “unusual levels of uncertainty and unpredictability” lie ahead. Writing as part of a series of articles on the referendum for Matrix Chambers, Jenkins says uncertainty would be limited in the areas of defence and education.
However, he adds that for those advising in the fields of immigration, asylum, discrimination, employment, agriculture, public procurement, competition and regulatory law, the impact of the uncertainty and unpredictability may be "profound and long term".
"The restoration of domestic competency may also, of course, result in equally profound and long term changes to the law itself," he says.
Catherine Dixon, chief executive of the Law Society, has warned of “short term gain, long term pain” for the legal profession, with a boom in business as “agreements are unpicked, contracts altered, new domestic rules written and the legal complexities of any changed relationship with the EU unravel”. However, independent research commissioned by the Law Society from Oxford Economics showed the legal services sector would fare worse than other sectors in the long-run.
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