The Law Society of England and Wales has published a paper which outlines its views on the building blocks necessary for having a fair, transparent and accessible mechanism for the resolution of disputes between the EU and the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

The paper analyses the currently used mechanisms for dispute resolution between the EU and third countries and highlights the elements that could be replicated in the final EU-UK agreement. It also explores the features of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in its role of an arbiter of legal disputes between the EU institutions and national governments.

The Law Society also outlines several principles that should be followed in designing the EU-UK dispute resolution mechanism:

  • it should be more robust than the mechanisms under free trade agreements (FTAs);
  • the system should apply across all strands of the final agreement;
  • it should continue to allow individuals access to enforce rights granted to them under the final UK-EU agreement;
  • it should be efficient, affordable and unrestrictive for different parts of the agreement;
  • it should create convergence between decisions made by it, the UK courts and the CJEU; and
  • there should also be scope for UK-EU political dialogue in case of a danger of divergence in interpreting the terms of the agreement. 

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