Former Court of Appeal judges to give evidence to Lords EU Committee
On Tuesday 17 January 2017 the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee will hear evidence from two former Court of Appeal judges about the impact on civil justice cooperation of losing, after Brexit, the jurisdiction of the EU's Court of Justice.
At 11am the Committee will hear from:
- The Rt Hon Sir Mathew Thorpe QC
- The Rt Hon Sir Richard Aikens QC
Questions the Committee is likely to ask include:
- The Government appears to reject any post-Brexit role for the Court of Justice of the EU. What are the implications of its stance for civil justice cooperation by the UK with the EU Member States post-Brexit?
- What aspects of the Brussels I recast Regulation, Brussels IIA Regulation, and the Maintenance Regulation would you be concerned to lose when we leave the EU?
- Could civil justice cooperation of the kind governed by these Regulations be maintained via the UK-EU withdrawal treaty once the UK leaves the EU?
- If this legislation was maintained post-Brexit, given that the Regulations derive from EU legislation and are interpreted by the Court of Justice, how should UK courts interpret them?
- We've heard that as an alternative to the Brussels regime common law rules would “simply occupy the space vacated by the EU regime [and] there would be no loss of performance post-Brexit”. Practitioners disagreed; what is your view?
- What are the alternatives for post-Brexit UK legal cooperation with EU Member States? Do either the Danish (international agreement) model or the Lugano Convention offer alternatives?
The evidence session will take place at 11am on Tuesday 17 January in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords.
