Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter discusses Brexit, and in particular the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement, the Political Declaration setting out the framework for the future relationship between the EU and the UK, the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and the UK’s own domestic legislation corresponding to these, the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 and the Future Relationship Act 2020. These instruments set out the basis for the future legal and trade relationship between the UK and the EU now that the UK is no longer an EU Member State.
Chapter
16. Brexit
Chapter
15. The relationship of the UK with the European Union and Brexit
This chapter charts the long association of the UK with the EU. It considers all aspects of this relationship including pre membership, entry to the EC (EU), the first UK EU referendum in 1975 and the relationship over five decades. It considers how EU law was granted supremacy over UK law and how the courts viewed this. It considers the period up to and, including the 2016 UK EU referendum on exiting or remaining in the EU and the immediate consequences of that. Finally, and now most importantly, it looks at the negotiations and means by which the UK legally exited the EU on 31 January and the movement into the next stage of that relationship: the future trade relationship with the EU.
