Abstract

Brexit – Withdrawal Agreement – Article 50 TEU – Negotiations – Legal character of agreement – Transition period – ‘New legal order’ – ‘Due regard’ – ECJ jurisdiction – Governance – Enforcement and supervision – Dispute settlement – Future relations

Highlights

  • The first thing to know about the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ between the EU and the UK is that it is not, as its name might imply, a legal instrument whereby the EU agrees to the withdrawal of the UK from its polity

  • It differs from an ‘accession agreement’, by which a third State agrees with the member states to accede to the Union, or an ‘association agreement’, whereby a third State agrees to establish with the Union ‘an association involving reciprocal rights and obligations, common action and special procedures’

  • Subject only to the slim possibility of a member state’s unilaterally revoking its notification of intention to leave, withdrawal follows ineluctably by operation of Article 50(3) TEU. This provides that ‘[t]he Treaties shall cease to apply’ to the member state concerned either on the date specified by the Withdrawal Agreement or, failing the conclusion of any such agreement, two years from the date of the notification of its intention to withdraw; the time limit can be extended by agreement between the Union and the state concerned

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Summary

Kieran Bradley*

Brexit – Withdrawal Agreement – Article 50 TEU – Negotiations – Legal character of agreement – Transition period – ‘New legal order’ – ‘Due regard’ – ECJ jurisdiction – Governance – Enforcement and supervision – Dispute settlement – Future relations. The first thing to know about the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ between the EU and the UK is that it is not, as its name might imply, a legal instrument whereby the EU agrees to the withdrawal of the UK from its polity.. The first thing to know about the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ between the EU and the UK is that it is not, as its name might imply, a legal instrument whereby the EU agrees to the withdrawal of the UK from its polity.1 It differs from an ‘accession agreement’, by which a third State agrees with the member states to accede to the Union, or an ‘association agreement’, whereby a third State agrees to establish with the Union ‘an association involving reciprocal rights and obligations, common action and special procedures’.2.

Kieran Bradley
Structure of the present article
The referendum and the triggering of the withdrawal procedure
Legal basis and material scope of the agreement
Conduct of the negotiations
Substantive provisions on transition
Institutional exclusion of the UK
Cases pending at the end of the transition period
New cases based on old facts
New categories of jurisdiction
Duties and powers of the Joint Committee
Special supervisory and enforcement regimes
The dispute settlement procedure
Full Text
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