Introduction

Author
DOI10.3366/elr.2018.0459
Published date01 January 2018
Date01 January 2018
Pages107-109

Leaving the European Union (“EU”) will be the most significant systemic change to Scots law since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The essays in this special Analysis section survey some (though by no means all) of the key aspects of the legal system likely to be affected by Brexit. In some of these areas, such as agriculture and fisheries, EU law has been the central source of legal regulation since we joined what was then the European Economic Community in 1973. In other areas, EU law has played a role alongside domestic regulation, in greater or lesser degrees.

At the time of writing (November 2017) – some sixteen months after the EU referendum and seven months after formal notification of the United Kingdom's intention to withdraw from the EU was given under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union – it is surprising just how much uncertainty there still is about the likely effects of Brexit. The articles in this section identify three key sources of uncertainty.

The first concerns what sort of relationship, if any, the UK will continue to have with the EU-27 post-Brexit, and what other trade deals we may negotiate in future. In some areas, such as agriculture and fisheries, it seems most likely that we will cease to have a special relationship with the EU-27, and hence will no longer be subject to EU law. In other areas, such as energy, financial services, and policing and criminal justice, it may be in the interests of both the UK and the EU-27...

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