The government published some "Information about the Withdrawal Bill" on the DEXEU website recently (HERE). I don't know how this is all seen in the legal profession but to a mere layman like me it looks incredibly complicated. There is an overview of the bill itself plus a fact sheet on converting and preserving law which says:
- The Bill will preserve the laws we have made in the UK to implement our EU obligations (e.g. the laws which implement EU directives).
- The Bill will convert existing EU law which applies directly in the UK’s legal systems (such as EU regulations and EU decisions) into UK law.
- The Bill will also retain remaining rights and obligations which apply directly in the UK as a result of section 2(1) of the ECA, including directly effective rights and obligations within EU treaties. An example is Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) on equal pay.
- Directly effective rights arising under other treaties brought into domestic law by the ECA, such as international agreements made by the EU with countries outside the EU, will also be retained by the Bill.
- The body of law that is converted and preserved under the Bill is known as ‘retained EU law’
There are more "Fact Sheets" covering The Correcting Power, The Power to implement the Withdrawal Agreement, Devolution, Charter of Fundamental Rights, Workers Rights, Environmental Protections, Consumer Protections, Treaty Rights, The Role of the Queens Printer (??), A Glossary, Impact Assessments, Regulatory Policy Committee Opinion, Equality Analysis, ECHR Memorandum, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU: Right by Right Analysis (73 pages!), Employment and EU Exit and so on and so on.
Then there is a whole bunch of Statutory Instruments (SIs) with titles like: The Employment Rights (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, The Employment Rights (Amendment) (EU Exit) (No 2) Regulations 2018, The Exotic Disease (Amendment) ( England ) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, Note on the Draft Statutory Instrument: The European Parliamentary Elections Etc. (Repeal, Revocation, Amendment and Saving Provisions) (United Kingdom and Gibraltar) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 and so on and so on. It is all just stunning. The Overview claims around 800-1000 Statutory Instruments will eventually be needed.
Anybody who thought leaving the EU could be done in a day or two and would be simple or easy should be made to read this stuff and then write a short essay on it.
To imagine that all this will be done without error is a serious mistake I think.
The website Public Law for everyone (HERE) says:
The Act does however create a new taxonomy [branch of science], distinguishing between ‘minor’ and ‘principal’ species of retained direct EU legislation.11 This will, for instance, enable Parliament when legislating in the future to ensure (should it so wish) that ministerial powers to amend ‘principal’ retained direct EU legislation are more limited or subject to greater parliamentary scrutiny. The Act also provides that, post-Brexit, the principle of the supremacy of EU law continues to bite upon pre-Brexit domestic law. The intention appears to be that at least some retained EU law will prevail over (other) pre-Brexit domestic legislation. This creates a conceptual conundrum — how can the principle of the supremacy of EU law meaningfully apply when Brexit rids the UK of all EU (as distinct from EU-derived) law? — that goes unaddressed by the Act, and which the courts will doubtless have to resolve.
English law always looked a bit of a mess anyway but after Brexit it will looks even worse. No wonder David Davis and Steve Baker resigned last week. They've been working on this for months and are no doubt well aware of the immense problems to come.
