On 23 August 2017, the United Kingdom Department for Exiting the European Union (DexEU) published its “Enforcement and dispute resolution – a future partnership paper”. The policy paper puts forward a number of proposals for the future resolution and enforcement of disputes between the United Kingdom and the European Union that will replace the direct jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after Brexit.
The paper notes that, post-Brexit, the EU and the UK will require a new dispute resolution mechanism to “help ensure the uniform [interpretation] and fair enforcement of the agreements” between the UK and the EU, with the aim of providing for the “effective functioning of the future partnership”. To that end, the paper proposes various mechanisms, including the possible establishment of joint committees or ad hoc arbitration panels. The paper also takes note of the importance of the CJEU as the ultimate arbiter of EU law.
The paper does not consider in detail what judicial supervision, enforcement, or dispute settlement arrangements might subsist in any transitional period before Brexit takes full effect.
The paper is the second in a series setting out key issues in building what the UK describes as “a new, deep and special partnership” with the EU. The first paper, titled “Providing a cross-border civil judicial cooperation framework: a future partnership paper”, was published on 22 August 2017.
For the policy paper titled “Enforcement and dispute resolution – a future partnership paper”, click here; for the policy paper titled “Providing a cross-border civil judicial cooperation framework: a future partnership paper”, click here.