Lecture Notes Law in Action

Lecture 1 Friday, 4 October 2019

Brexit: The UK and the European Union. Legal,
political and economic issues

Law in Action

Brexit; Exit of the UK from the EU

Origins of Brexit: WW1&2, European enemy powers (France, Germany, UK, Italy &
Spain), avoid future con icts, USA supports economic reconstruction: Marshall Plan
(1947)

Historical Backgrounds:
- New relations among European enemy states
- New forms of co-operation (UN)
- Economic reconstruction and political dialogue
- Peace and security in Europe (Cold-War)
- International Law and EU Law
- Treaties of economic co-operation
- Idea of gradual integration - “closer union”

Origins:
- Churchill’s speech in Zurich (Switzerland), 1946:
- ‘We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only we will
hundreds if millions of toilers be able to regain the simples joys and hopes
which make life worth living… The structure of the United States of
Europe, if well and truly built, will be such as to make the material strength
of a single state less important’
- Second World War
- toilers: hard working people
- Make the power of a state less important

Federalist ideals in Europe: (1947)
- Montreaux Resolution developed by the EU of Federalists:


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