There remains, however, a number of questions and issues which remain unresolved in terms of trade agreements & exactly what the implications will be for the UK and other countries post-Brexit.

These issues include; How will trade and movement between the UK and the EU operate in practice in the future?; How will Brexit impact the UK economy? What will be the implications for the Good Friday Agreement and the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland?

These are just some of the many questions which are yet to be resolved and the practice and the UK and EU negotiations have their work cut out over the coming months.

What is Brexit?

Brexit is the term coined to refer to the UK leaving the European Union. This was following the result of the referendum held in April 2016, where by a narrow margin, the British public voted to leave the EU.

The UK government then formally requested to trigger article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which is the way in which a “member state”, such as the UK, can request to leave the EU. This granted the UK and EU a period of time, in which an exit deal could be agreed. An agreement was reached and approved by both the EU and the UK at the end of December last year.

Background to Brexit

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The UK joined the European Economic Community (EEC) as it was then known in 1973, by the Treaty of Accession. This enabled the UK to join the common economic market with a number of entitlements to free movement and trade between member states of the common economic market.

Following a change of government, the UK held the first referendum in 1975, where the British public voted to remain part of the EEC.

The EEC was renamed the European Union, as it is now known, by the Treaty of Maastricht, which was signed by member states in 1992. This treaty also marked a move away from purely economic entitlements of the common market, to include wider freedoms of movement and other implications for member states. The treaty also created a number of new EU institutions which still remain in force today.

Post-Brexit and beyond

Following 31 January 2020 the UK will enter a period of transition, which will last until December 2020. During this transition period the UK will remain part of both the Common Market and the Customs Union. It is during this transition period that the UK and EU negotiators will aim to resolve the legal and practical details of a post-Brexit Britain and how trade and movement will operate moving forward between the UK and the EU.

These negotiations are schedule to begin on 3 March 2020.

Both the EU and UK negotiators are in the rather unusual position of starting from a free trade and free movement of people and moving away from that position. This included negotiating what blocks or restrictions, will now be in place and how they would operate in practice.

The implications of Brexit for Ireland

Whilst the UK including Northern Ireland will leave the EU, Ireland will remain a member of the EU and therefore this has implications for citizens in Northern Ireland that can currently hold both British and Irish passports.

There are also concerns that Brexit will create a border in Ireland, between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland. An issue which the EU negotiators where keen to avoid and argued for special provisions to be in place for Ireland. This was referred to by negotiators as the “Irish backstop”. These provisions were removed in the withdraw agreement put forward by Boris Johnson and approved by the UK Parliament, last December.

One of the concerns expressed by the EU negotiators was that creating any kind of boarder in Ireland could sabotage the peace agreement, known as the Good Friday Agreement which was made in 1998. Indeed, one of the chief negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement, Jonathan Powell has expressed a view that any border in Ireland would be in some sense be a “hard border” and could have implications for the peace process in Ireland.

There have also been a number of other implications for Ireland. This has included a record number of Irish passports being issued, more that 900,000 were issued in 2019, with a 7 per cent increase on the number from the previous year. Applications for Irish passports from Northern Ireland and Great Britain have been on the rise since the Brexit vote in June 2016.

There has also been a significant increase in UK lawyers seeking admission in Ireland. Currently, UK lawyers have rights of appearance in both UK and EU legal matters. However, post-Brexit, this will no longer be the case. Holding Irish admission will therefore be advantageous to UK lawyers also practicing in cross-border EU matters. Given it will mean they are able retain their standing to appear in both EU and UK. The Brexit-inspired surge in UK-based lawyers joining the Irish roll of solicitors has reached record levels as more than 1,200 have gained or are seeking admission already in 2020.

There have also been calls from Scotland to hold another referendum of independence from the UK given the majority of Scotland voted to remain part of the EU.

The UK leaving the EU will also have implications for UK overseas territories and their borders, particularly those in the heart of Europe with current open borders with Spain such as Gibraltar.

The coming months will certainly be interesting as the practicalities and legal implications of post-Brexit Britain become more apparent.

Emma Langley is a lawyer and CEO of RS Consulting.