'Reflections on Brexit - The Road to Here and the Paths Ahead' - Christopher Hobley (DExEU): CELS Seminar

Professor Tobias Lock of Maynooth University gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "Consolidation or Fragmentation: Is EU Accession to the ECHR (Still) Worth It?" on Wednesday 20 February 2020 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Professor Hans Micklitz of the European University Institute gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "The EU as Regulator in Private Law: A Neo-Liberal Hegemon or a Civiliser of Capitalist Enterprises" on Wednesday 5 February 2020 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Professor Steven Peers of the University of Essex gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "Citizens Rights in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement: What Rights do People Have, and How to Enforce Them?" on Wednesday 29 January 2020 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Professor Zoltan Fleck of Eotvos Lorand University gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "History, Institutions and Ideas of Rule of Law in Hungary" on Wednesday 22 January 2020 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Christopher Hobley of the Department for Exiting the European Union gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "Reflections on Brexit - The Road to Here and the Paths Ahead" on Wednesday 20 November 2019 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Professor Kenneth Armstrong, University of Cambridge, gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "To Align or Not to Align? - Market Regulation after Brexit" on Wednesday 6 November 2019 at the Faculty of Law. Membership of the European Union requires Member States to implement EU rules and align their legal frameworks to ensure that domestic legal rules faithfully and continually reflect the market regulation requirements imposed by EU law over time. Apart from the generic provisions of the European Communities Act 1972, remarkably little attention has been paid to the mechanisms and instruments by which UK law has aligned with EU law during membership. The UK’s withdrawal from the Union and the aim of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to ensure perfect domestic alignment as of ‘exit day’ provides a novel opportunity to reflect on how alignment has been achieved during membership and how that might change post-Brexit. And while much of the media attention lies on the big political choices facing the UK as to whether to pre-commit to alignment under a so-called Norway model or instead to have regulatory autonomy to pursue free trade deals (or a mixture of the two in respect of the Irish ‘backstop’), very little is understood as to how alignment will be secured through legal mechanisms and legal instruments. This paper explores the past and future of regulatory alignment in the UK when – and if – Brexit occurs. For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Professor Tamara Hervey, University of Sheffield, gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "Patients' Rights Post-Brexit" on Wednesday 30 October 2019 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). The support of the ESRC’s Health Governance After Brexit grant ES/S00730X/1 and The University of Sheffield’s SURE programme is gratefully acknowledged. While the UK is a member of the European Union (EU), people who are entitled to NHS treatment in the UK are entitled to access state healthcare when travelling abroad as temporary visitors. In practice, this right is accessed through the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). EHIC entitlements include the right to state-provided dialysis treatment when abroad. When the UK leaves the EU, this will change. Patients’ legal entitlements will differ depending on what kind of Brexit occurs. This paper will analyse the new post-Brexit legal landscape, and will focus on particularly vulnerable patient groups. For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Dr Markus Gehring of the University of Cambridge gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "EU Environmental Law, Brexit and the Future of UK Trade Agreements" on Wednesday 23 October 2019 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies). For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Professor Morten Broberg of the University of Copenhagen gave a seminar on Wednesday 16 October 2019 as a guest of CELS. Does EU law interfere with commercial arbitration – And if so, how and to what extent? This CELS lunch-time seminar will show that, indeed, EU law interferes with commercial arbitration in several different ways. First of all, commercial arbitration tribunals are obligated to take fundamental EU law into account when rendering their arbitral awards and in this context the scope of fundamental EU law is fairly wide. Secondly, the seminar will more generally show that it is important that commercial arbitration tribunals are aware that if an arbitral award does not take EU law into account, it runs a real risk of being set aside during subsequent review by ordinary courts. Thirdly, the seminar will consider the situation where a Member State has been party to the arbitration proceedings, or the arbitration tribunal has been established through the intervention of one or more Member States since these situations are subject to particularly strict assessments. Finally, the seminar will critically consider to what extent arbitration tribunals can submit preliminary references to the Court of Justice under Article 267 TFEU. For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

On 14 March 2019 the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) hosted a symposium to discuss the potential implications of Brexit. The aim of this event was to provide informed commentary on issues within the ongoing Brexit process (whatever they may be). Programme: Session 1: Free Movement of Persons and Establishment What are the consequences of the Brexit process for the immediate and future rights of EU citizens within the UK and UK citizens travelling to or working within the EU. This would cover both the right to work, the right to be self-employed, and the rights of those not in employment. Chair: John Bell Martin Steinfeld (University of Cambridge) Eleanor Spaventa (Bocconi University, Italy) Session 2: External Relations What is the effect of the Brexit process on the UK’s ability to conclude trade agreements? What are the potential frameworks within which these might be developed? Chair: Geoffrey Edwards (POLIS) Markus Gehring (University of Cambridge) Georges Baur (Liechtenstein Institute, Formerly EFTA) Session 3: Goods and Services What is the effect of present and proposed arrangements on the free movement of goods and services? How far are the UK and EU markets to be segmented and how will this affect trading across borders, notably that in Northern Ireland? Chair: Stephen Weatherill (University of Oxford) Laurence Gormley (University of Groningen) Gareth Davies (Vrije University, Amsterdam) Session 4: Competition Law How will the substantive rules and procedures on competition law and state aids be affected by the Brexit process in the short and medium term? Chair: Albertina Albors-Llorens (University of Cambridge) Oke Odudu (University of Cambridge) Tim Ward (Monckton Chambers)