Comparison of different regimes of future legal relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union after Brexit

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1845
• Author: Henrique Moric Vilela Mariano
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Published date: 01 November 2018

ACADEMIC PAPER

Comparison of different regimes of future legal relations

between the United Kingdom and the European Union after

Brexit

Henrique Moric Vilela Mariano

Law student at Fakulta Právnická,

Universidade Federal do Paraná, Researcher at

Západočeská Univerzita v Plzni, Curitiba, Brazil

Correspondence

Henrique Moric Vilela Mariano, Law student

at Fakulta Právnická, Universidade Federal do

Paraná, Researcher at Západočeská Univerzita

v Plzni, Curitiba, Brazil.

Email: henriquedottoly@bol.com.br;

henriquemoric@ufpr.br

The following article comes from a Research Internship at the University of West

Bohemia in Plzen promoted by the UNIGOU Program, from the INCBAC Institute.

After a long research, the text intends to analyze the possible future relations

between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) after Brexit, comparing

the different options and attempting to better understand the possible outcomes

from it. The text is divided in eight parts: a brief introduction; an explanation about

the EU and Brexit; the five different options or models (namely, Norwegian, Swiss,

Turkish, Canadian and WTO); and the conclusion of the entire work. Each of the

Options explains briefly the current relation between those countries and the EU

and try to assume how would it work with the United Kingdom.

1|INTRODUCTION

This project's objective is to compare the possible future relations

between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) after their

so‐called “divorce,”analyzing what are the options and the advantages

and disadvantages of each.

Although it seems very clear that the United Kingdom will leave the

EU, it is not so clear in what terms that will happen: if that detachment

will be as hard as some of the Leave campaign suggested or softer and

not a so big separation. Needless to say that the terms of this parting

will have great impact in Britain, the EU, and even the whole world.

Based on the existing relationswith the EU, it is possible to assume

that thereare some main paths that the post‐Brexitrelations mayfollow.

Therefore, this article intends to explain what those different relations

are, how they work, and what problemsmay surge from each. It is not

the idea of this textto try to predict what will happenin the future, but

only to analyzewhat are the possibilitiesand what are their implications.

Nonetheless, to do so, it is necessary to understand what Brexit is,

what led to it, and, generally, how the leaving process works.

2|BREXIT

Brexit (or Britain exit) has been a popular subject around 2016, but the

origins of this idea go a long way. The United Kingdom joined the

European Communities in 1973, and that membership was confirmed

by a referendum in 1975. Since then, there has been advocates of the

withdrawal, but this topic gained special importance in the last years

(House of Commons Library, 2013).

Soon after the 2015's elections, the Parliament voted the

European Union Referendum Act 2015 (United Kingdom Parliament,

2015), which made legal provisions for a nonbinding referendum to

be held on whether the United Kingdom should remain a Member

State of the EU or leave it. Such referendum took place on June 23,

2016, and 51.9% of the participating U.K. electorate voted to leave.

The heart of the Brexit campaign is to recover Britain's lost

sovereignty, hence the main slogan “Take control”(The Economist,

2016; Vote Leave Campaign, 2018). More specifically, those in favor

of leaving argued that the EU imposed too many rules and charged

billions of pounds a year in membership fees for little in return

(Carswell, 2015). Another very important issue was the immigration.

Therefore, in sum, it is possible to list three main objectives: stop

paying to the EU (or, at least, reduce this payment), let the United

Kingdom make its own laws again, and control harder the borders

(Hunt & Wheeler, 2018).

However, how does the leaving process work? The answer for

that is on Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, signed by all Member

States of the EU (The Lisbon Treaty, 2008). After the Parliament

approval, the Prime Minister, according to Article 50, notified the

European Council, in March 2017. That was the starting point of the

Received: 17 May 2018 Accepted: 10 June 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1845

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1845.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1845

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of6