The Deconstitutionalization of European Union Fundamental Rights in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to assess the consequences of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit) for the ongoing value of competing EU-derived economic freedoms and fundamental social rights within that country’s domestic legal order. It will be shown that Union fundamental rights concepts have an ongoing—albeit indirect—influence both within domestic law but also through those legal arrangements governing the United Kingdom’s departure from—and new relationship with—the European Union. Brexit also provides an avenue for exploring the ‘deconstitutionalization’ of Union fundamental rights, including the potentially differing consequences for the embedding of economic freedoms and fundamental social rights within domestic employment law. It is further suggested that the European Union’s reaction to Brexit included a recommitment to the protection of social rights within the Union legal order.