The Law & Politics of Brexit

Abstract

The decision by the people of the United Kingdom (UK) to vote in a referendum on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union (EU) has produced shock-waves across Europe and the world. While the Treaty on European Union explicitly allows a Member State to withdraw from the Union, no country thus far had ever decided to secede from what is arguably the most successful experiment in regional integration in history. Brexit, therefore, calls into question consolidated assumptions on the finality of the EU, and simultaneously opens new challenges—not only in the institutional fabric of Europe, but also in the UK constitutional settlement, eg in Northern Ireland and Scotland. This book provides a first comprehensive analysis of the challenges posed by Brexit, their causes, and their consequences. By combining the contributions of lawyers, political scientists, and political economists from across Europe, the book seeks to shed light on the manifold and complicated effects that Brexit creates—in the UK, and its internal constitutional settlement, as well as in the EU, and its institutional regime. While many uncertainties still surround the process of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, so much is already on the table: this book thus avoids speculation and focuses instead on the many and difficult political, legal, and economic issues that Brexit exposed.