Note: some of the pages and documents to which there are links on this page seem no longer to exist. Attempts will be made to update them in due course where possible.
Brexit: views from abroad
2017 July 28
The Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA): Can the UK Negotiate a New Kind of Free Trade Arrangement? John Temple Lang.
John Temple Lang is a Solicitor, an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin, and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He spent more than twenty years in the Legal Service and the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission.
The IIEA is Ireland’s leading think tank on European and International affairs.
2017 July
ECON Thesaurus on Brexit, 4th Edition, European Parliament
“This thesaurus is a collection of ECON related articles, papers and studies on the possible withdrawal of the UK from the EU. Recent literature from various sources is categorised, chronologically listed – while keeping the content of previous editions – and briefly summarised.”
2017 June
The Consequences of Brexit on Services and Establishment: Different Scenarios for Exit and Future Cooperation. European Parliament study, Prof. Dr Friedemann Kainer
“This paper addresses the challenges Brexit will pose to the future of trade in services between the EU and the UK. It discusses the specific barriers to cross-border establishment and trade in services and possible solutions for a future EU-UK trade agreement. Hereby, it takes existing EU Free Trade Agreements with other states into consideration.”
2017 June
Implications of Brexit on EU Financial Services, study for the ECON Committee, European Parliament.
“This study … addresses the implications and economic impact of several scenarios of the UK leaving the EU in relation to financial services, ranging from a ‘hard Brexit’ without any arrangements concerning financial services to the current state of affairs under the terms of a full EU membership.”
2017 Avril 19
La Revue Geopolitique : Le « Brexit », quelles conséquences économiques pour la France ? Par Patrick Allard. (diploweb.com se dit le Premier site géopolitique francophone). Téléchargement disponible.
« Pour la France, les conséquences du Brexit seront modérément négatives au plan macroéconomique. La France peut espérer bénéficier de la relocalisation de certaines activités financières obligées de quitter Londres. Mais les gains, aléatoires, ne compenseront pas les pertes à attendre dans d’autres secteurs. Par ailleurs, le retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’Union européenne pourrait avoir un coût budgétaire significatif pour les autres États membres, notamment en France. »
2017 April
The impact and consequences of Brexit on acquired rights of EU citizens living in the UK and British citizens living in the EU-27, commissioned for the AFCO Committee of the European Parliament by the Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs. Authors: Antonio Fernández Tomás, Professor of Public International Law, University of Castilla-La Mancha; Diego López Garrido, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Castilla-La Mancha Fundación Alternativas
“This study … examines the concept of acquired (or ‘vested’) rights in public international law, analyses the gradual establishment and evolution of these rights and draws from case law as well as other precedents in order to establish the validity and force of acquired rights in customary and conventional international law. It also analyses the protection of such rights within the EU legal order, and examines the citizenship rights that will have to be taken into account during the UK withdrawal negotiations as well as their potential permanence in the EU and UK legal orders after Brexit. It concludes with an assessment on the legal force of acquired rights after Brexit and recommendations for their treatment during and after the withdrawal negotiations.”
2017 March 17
Kommerskollegium -National Board of Trade, Sweden: Brexit – Options for a future regulatory framework for trade in services and customs and trade procedures between the EU and the UK.
“In September 2016, the Swedish Government commissioned the National Board of Trade to analyse and provide alternatives for how trade in services between the EU and the UK can be regulated after a UK withdrawal from the EU and its single market. The assignment also includes analysing and providing alternatives for how customs and trade procedures for the trade in goods between the EU and the UK can be designed after a UK withdrawal from the EU.”
2017 March 12
Friends of Europe: How to (Br)exit ‒ a guide for decision-makers.
“How to (Br)exit was written by Mogens Peter Carl, a former director-general of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade and Directorate-General for the Environment. … It is not for or against Brexit, but rather seeks to provide guidance to decision-makers on both sides of the English Channel, sharing some unpalatable truths to both London and Brussels.”
Friends of Europe is an independent think tank with no national or party political bias which aims to represent all viewpoints in its activities and publications.
March 2017
The Brexit Negotiations: An Assessment of the Legal, Political and Institutional Situation in the UK, commissioned for the AFCO Committee of the European Parliament by the Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs..
“… an in-depth analysis on the political and institutional situation in the United Kingdom following the referendum on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The research analyses the post-Brexit political developments in the UK, the various parameters that should be taken into account, by both the UK government and the 27 …”
March 2017
An Assessment of the Economic Impact of Brexit on the EU27, Policy Department on Economic and Scientific Policies for the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, European Parliament.
“This paper … assesses the likely impact of Brexit on EU27, together with some scenarios for the terms of the UK’s secession. For the EU 27, the losses are found to be virtually insignificant, and hardly noticed in the aggregate. By contrast, for the UK, the losses could be highly significant, over ten times greater as a share of GDP.”
2017 January 25
Brexit and the European Union: General Institutional and Legal Considerations: a report for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament
“This study … examines the political and institutional steps taken, or to be taken, both by the UK and by the EU in the context of the Brexit referendum vote, and into how matters may evolve in the coming months and years from a legal and institutional perspective. It analyses, in broad terms, the possibilities for a future relationship between the Union and its departing member and the consequences that the departure of a large Member State may entail for the rest of the policies of the Union and for the Union itself.”
2017 January
European Parliament: The UK’s Potential Withdrawal from the EU and Single Market Access under EU Financial Services Legislation, a report for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs by Prof. dr. Olha O. Cherednychenko , Groningen Centre for European Financial Services Law (GCEFSL), University of Groningen.
This paper examines how the current EU financial services legislation ensures or facilitates access to the EU single financial market for EU/EEA Member States and third countries. The analysis focuses on passporting/mutual recognition regimes for EU/EEA Member States and third country equivalence regimes.
Brexit: the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill
Draft legislation (Projet de loi). The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill 2017-19 page on the UK Parliament website . The draft bill itself (13 July 2017 version) is here.
Brexit: views from the UK
2017 July 13
Financial Markets Law Committee Working Group: Issues of Legal Uncertainty Arising in the Context of the Withdrawal of the U.K. from the E.U. — the Provision and Application of Third Country Regimes in E.U. Legislation. A .pdf download is available.
The paper focuses on issues of legal uncertainty specific to the application of E.U. legislation to U.K. – based financial services providers.
In the event that the U.K . withdraws from the E.U. In a truly “hard Brexit” scenario, without treaty provisions of any kind, at the end of the two – year Article 50 notice period (29 March 2019) , the U.K. will lose the benefits of membership of the E.U . and will become, from the perspective of E.U. law, a Third Country.
In these circumstances, the ability of U.K. firms to provide financial services into the E.U. from the day of Brexit would largely depend on the existing E.U. legal framework for service providers based in Third Countries. This framework comprises various regimes (“Third Country regimes”) written into key pieces of E.U. legislation.
The Third Country regimes offered by E.U. law are multiple and diverse but they do not, even in aggregate, offer comprehensive access to the single market, i.e. across the full range of financial services business lines.
2017 April 11
International Regulatory Strategy Group Mutual recognition – a basis for market access after Brexit.
2017 January 31
Financial Markets Law Committee: Letter to Treasury Select Committee on Transitional Arrangements. .pdf download available from the page.
2017 January 23
International Regulatory Strategy Group: Third Country Regimes and Alternatives to Passporting. (.pdfs of summary and full report available from the link.) Based on the analysis undertaken by the IRSG, the report draws the following conclusions:
Given their limited coverage (compared to current rights of access), uncertainty of availability and the lack of key safeguards associated with them, the TCRs do not provide an acceptable long-term, sustainable solution for the UK-based industry as a whole to access EU markets.
Relying on the degree of access that is permitted under local laws in individual Member States does not provide a sufficient solution either. Indeed, since the UK’s current regime for allowing access for overseas firms is materially more liberal than that in many individual Member States, we would be left with an asymmetric relationship.
The debate should thus focus on what a bespoke agreement between the UK and the EU allowing mutual market access should look like.
Transitional arrangements will have to be agreed as quickly as possible to ensure continuity of service provision until a new settlement can be implemented and to minimise unnecessary relocation or restructuring by financial firms.
2016
Oliver Wyman, The impact of the UK’s exit from the EU on the UK-based financial services sector.
2016
European Law Review Editorial “Brexit and international treaty-making”, by Panos Koutrakos: Sweet and Maxwell download here.
Financial regulation, EU and international trade
2014 November
Financial Services in EU Trade Agreements, a report for the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs by Prof Dr. Andrew Lang of the London School of Economics and Caitlin Conyers.
Abstract: … an overview of rules concerning trade in financial services in a range of recent preferential trade agreements (PTA) to which the EU is a party … EU Member States are collectively the world’s largest exporters of financial services, and the sector is of strategic importance in the EU’s trade policy. In its trade agreements with Korea, Singapore, Colombia/Peru, Central America and CARIFORUM, and its ongoing negotiations with Canada, the EU has sought and obtained considerable concessions in the sector which go beyond those agreed multilaterally in the WTO.
2014 October 29
UK Supreme Court gives judgment in landmark consultation case. Note by Monckton Chambers on what is now the leading case on the duty to consult.
2014 April 28
A legal assessment of the UK’s relationship with the EU, TheCityUK. This report by Clifford Chance is downloadable in .pdf from this link
The Financial Services Lawyers Association website can be found here
Enforcement and financial crime
Here is a link to the UK FCA’s final notices issued in enforcement cases
Première sanction de l’ACPR sur l’information et le conseil, 27 septembre 2013 (L’Argus de l’assurance: link via Gide Loyrette Nouel’s website)
La nouvelle arme des juges d’instruction financiers, Bruno Quentin – Les Echos, Le 27/02/2013
(Bruno Quentin est avocat associé au cabinet Gide Loyrette Nouel et expert du Club des Juristes)
Market failures and the financial crisis
Connections between the LMX Spiral in the London insurance market, and the 2008 financial crisis: The Game of ‘Pass the Risk’: Then and Now, Joy A. Schwartzman; Lloyd’s of London’s collapse has lessons for today’s crisis, an article in The Daily Telegraph, 13 February 2009, by Michael Wade.
The Report of an inquiry into Lloyd’s syndicate participations and the LMX spiral, Sir David Walker, June 1992 is available here (Part 1) and here (Part 2)
Residence tests
Residence of Individuals in EU law, Jan Wouters, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Faculty of Law, 2010
UK HMRC Guidance Note: Statutory ResidenceTest (SRT) December 2013. (Note: this document is periodically updated, so you may want to check that this links to the current version)