‘Theresa May is to trigger Article 50 on 29 March 2017, kicking off the two-year negotiation period during which the relationship between the UK and the EU will be redefined. On 12 March the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee published their ninth report of the current session: ‘Article 50 negotiations: Implications of ‘no deal’’. This is the first Select Committee publication focusing specifically on the implications faced by the UK in the event of a ‘no deal’ situation, with reference to a range of different sectors, policy areas and circumstances. Last week the concerns raised in the report as to the Government’s position or rather the apparent lack thereof regarding ‘no deal’ implications seemed to be confirmed when the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union made headlines telling the Brexit Select Committee that the Government had done no economic assessment of the possible effects of a “no deal” scenario. On 24 January 2017, similar remarks were made when Davis said that there were so many different things to assess, considering implications of ‘no deal’ would be ‘nothing more than an exercise in guesswork at this stage’. In this post I will highlight the most interesting points raised in the report which go to show that, contrary to what the Government suggests, it is actually both possible and vital to assess what areas require particular attention and what challenges this would bring. Beyond the question of ‘no deal’ implications, there are various aspects that the report touches upon which would benefit from academic discussion.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 24th March 2017

Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org