Withdrawal Negotiations Research Articles

Gibraltar, the Brexit, the Symbolic Sovereignty, and the Dispute. A Principality in the Straits?

Gibraltar, the Brexit, the Symbolic Sovereignty, and the Dispute. A Principality in the Straits?

Brexit and European Criminal Law

The Brexit vote of 23 June 2016 entails a lot of uncertainty with regard to the future relationship of the UK with the EU, not least in the field of criminal justice cooperation. With the adoption of the (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill and Prime Minister May’s actual triggering of Art. 50 Treaty of the European Union (‘TEU’) on 29 March 2017 formal withdrawal negotiations could start and have in the meantime actually started. This little essay will first describe the area concerned, i.e., European Criminal Law in the narrow sense (1), then we will look at the current relationship of the UK with the EU in the criminal justice area (2), and, last but not least, sketch out possible options of the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU in the criminal justice area (3). The piece is dedicated to Wolfgang Schomburg who did not only have a formative influence of the case law of the ICTY where he served as the first German judge from November 2001 to November 2008 but also edited the perhaps most important German commentary on mutual assistance in criminal matters. In this commentary, European Criminal Law plays a prominent role. In addition, Schomburg was appointed honorary professor in Durham Law School, UK, in March 2009. For both reasons I am confident that this paper will find his interest.

The withdrawal of the Soviet/Russian armed forces and the end of the occupation (Essay of the chronology of the troop withdrawal negotiations)

This speech discusses the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the Republic of Lithuania mostly based on some personal recollections and the integration of research conclusions reached so far in the scholarly literature. The paper outlines the international environment which made the withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania possible, the goals of the Lithuanian side and the peaceful means to achieve them as well as the responsibility of foreign occupations resting upon the shoulders of Russian state then and now, as the legal heir of the Soviet Union. This speech is to be perceived as an exercise of historical memory.

Back to the future: the UK’s EU exit and the conflict of laws

On 24 June 2016, after months of public debate, it was confirmed that the people of the United Kingdom (UK) had voted by a narrow majority (51.9% to 48.1%) to leave the European Union (EU). The decision to leave seems likely to have a significant impact on the UK’s civil justice system and, in particular, on the rules of private international law applied to dispute resolution in a cross-border context. It is, however, a highly speculative exercise to predict the future shape of private international law in the UK in these circumstances. Putting speculation to one side, this article seeks to analyse legal events of the past to assess the position that the UK now finds itself in when approaching withdrawal negotiations. In particular, the following discussion seeks to identify the legal baseline of applicable private international law rules under international, EU and national law following withdrawal, with a particular emphasis on the domain currently occupied by the instruments applicable to civil and commercial matters (Brussels I, Lugano, Rome I, Rome II).