Taking Back Control': the challenges and opportunities of United Kingdom regulatory autonomy

Abstract

Chapter 13 considers the repatriation of competences within a domestic constitutional context and considers the constitutional challenges that repatriation has raised. Adam Cygan explores the challenges and opportunities of regulatory autonomy for the UK and evaluates what the exercise of repatriation of competence means for the UK's devolved institutions. In particular, he focuses on to what extent does the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 provide, not only for the coherent exercise of repatriated competences, but also maintain the constitutional equilibrium of the devolution settlements. Regulatory divergence within the UK which was a result of UK's devolution settlement already existed before Brexit, but the internal effects in the UK were less pronounced because of the need for compliance with EU laws and not UK rules. Now, post Brexit, Cygan argues that regulatory differences across the nations of the UK are likely to be exaggerated and may stress test the flexibility of UK constitution in a way that had not previously been experienced.