101 UK Brexit Notes

Connemara Programme October 16 2018 pg. 110 Citizen Rights: Legal: Civil Cases Before 29 March 2019 Currently, the UK applies EU rules to determine:  which country’s courts hear a civil, commercial or family law case raising cross-border issues with other EU countries (jurisdiction)  which country’s laws apply (applicable law)  how a judgment obtained in one EU country should be recognised and enforced in another (recognition and enforcement)  how cross-border legal procedural matters are handled (such as taking evidence in one country for use in proceedings in another) A number of different EU instruments make up the current system. These cover rules for civil and commercial disputes, including insolvency, and for family law matters. We also apply a number of international agreements because of our EU membership, which enable elements of civil judicial cooperation with non-EU countries. A list of these instruments and international agreements can be found in the list of EU civil judicial instruments and international agreements. These instruments and agreements currently operate in each of the UK’s separate and distinct legal systems.  England and Wales, which operates a common law system  Scotland, which operates Scots law, a mixed system  Northern Ireland, which also operates a common law system After March 2019 if there’s no deal In the unlikely event of ‘no deal’, there would be no agreed EU framework for ongoing civil judicial cooperation between the UK and EU countries. Most of the EU rules operate on the basis of reciprocity between EU countries. If the UK continued to apply the rules unilaterally after exit, the UK’s status as a third country would mean that EU countries would not consider the UK to be covered by these rules. As a result, UK citizens, businesses and families would not benefit from these rules. Because of this loss of reciprocity, in the event of a no deal scenario, we would repeal most of the existing civil judicial cooperation rules and instead use the domestic rules which each UK legal system currently applies in relation to non-EU countries. In some specific areas, detailed below, we would retain elements of the current EU rules, where they either do not rely on reciprocity to operate or where they currently form the basis for our existing domestic or international rules. We would also continue to apply existing international agreements, such as th e Hague Conventions , which in many areas provide alternative rules covering the same areas as the EU-specific instruments, although they are not always as comprehensive. Where the UK currently participates in Hague Conventions because of our EU membership (namely the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements and the 2007 Hague Convention on Maintenance), we would make the necessary arrangements to continue to participate in these international agreements in our own right. Any party to a cross-border legal dispute, including businesses, consumers and families, would need to consider the effect that these changes would have on any existing or future cases involving parties in EU countries. Where appropriate you may wish to seek professional legal advice on the implications of these changes for your individual circumstances. Civil and commercial judicial cooperation In the absence of a deal with the EU, the following rules would be repealed for all parts of the UK:  Brussels Iaw: which provides rules to decide where a case should be heard when it raises cross-border issues between the UK and other EU countries, and the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments between EU countries  The Enforcement Order, Order for Payment and Small Claims Regulations: which establish EU procedures for dealing with, respectively, uncontested debts and claims worth less than EUR5,000  The EU/Denmark Agreement: which provides rules to decide where a case would be heard when it raises cross-border issues between Denmark and EU countries, and the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments between the EU and Denmark  The Lugano Convention: which is the basis of our civil judicial relationship with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland: This would not prevent us applying to re-join the Lugano Convention in our own right at a later date For rules in these areas, we would instead revert to the existing domestic common law and statutory rules, which currently apply in cross border cases concerning the rest of the world, to govern our relationship with the remaining EU countries (and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland).