30 December 2020
Back to Start?
The UK won a major victory with the EU in the Draft EU-UK Christmas EveTrade Agreement: It got the EU to renunciate the so-called Ukraine mechanism which, in effect, would have made the Commission the UK’s watchdog. This has caused some “Brexit envy” in Switzerland as this mechanism is part of the Draft EU-Switzerland Institutional Agreement. With a “bullshit” campaign, former Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, however, has led Switzerland into a cul-de-sac, making it likely that the negotiations will have to go back to start. Continue reading >>
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15 November 2018
On Thin Ice: the Role of the Court of Justice under the Withdrawal Agreement
Her alleged red line of bringing “an end to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice in Britain” was always going to be a problem for Theresa May: After all, the UK’s commitment to comply with certain EU rules would inevitably mean that the ECJ’s interpretations of these rules would have to be binding on the UK. It is thus no surprise that the Withdrawal Agreement provides for the jurisdiction of the ECJ in various places. What is perhaps more of a surprise – and surely a negotiation win for the UK – is the EU’s legally problematic concession of an arbitration mechanism to resolve inter-party disputes over the interpretation of the Withdrawal Agreement. Continue reading >>09 March 2018
The Limited Immediate Effects of CJEU’s Achmea Judgement
It seemed that Court of Justice of the European Union wanted to make it short and sweet: It took the Grand Chamber in its Achmea Decision less than fifteen pages to conclude that Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), as we know it, shall belong to the past, at least in an intra-EU context. Finito della musica? Not quite! Continue reading >>10 June 2016