INTRODUCTION

Currently we are at the post-referendum stage: the UK is still a member of the EU and Brexit, the UK exit from the EU, is being negotiated. At the moment the negotiations are centred on finalising the withdrawal agreement which includes provisions on the rights of the EU citizens to continue to live and reside in the UK as well as the rights of UK citizens in the EU, on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and on budgetary issues. The draft agreement also contains provisions on the transition period, otherwise called the implementation period. The exit date is set for 30 March 2019 – that being the first date when the UK is no longer a member state of the EU.

After 30 March 2019, while the UK will no longer be an EU member state, its status in many respects will be equated with one. The part of the agreement on transition aims to achieve a so-called status quo transition. This means that all EU acquis continues to apply, unless otherwise specifically mentioned, after the exit date. The major change will be that the UK will no longer participate in the EU institutional framework: in the EU decision making and judicial bodies, and there will no longer be European Parliament elections in the UK where EU citizens could participate.

However, the new relationship is still to be drafted and negotiated at this point.

On civil justice the UK has stated its desire to continue with civil justice cooperation. This is supported wholly by the legal profession. According to the Government's and the legal profession's assessment, at the very least the UK needs access to the Lugano Convention. However, most on the UK side would prefer to continue with a wider range of EU civil justice cooperation. On the EU side, the response came in March 2017, where the European Council negotiation guidelines do not mention civil justice. They only refer to cooperation in family law. This presumably means that civil justice cooperation in civil and commercial law is to be decided together with other trade issues, with the main question being how ambitious an agreement will be available to the UK in future.