Tonight at midnight Brussels time, 11 pm for us Brits, the UK ceases to be a member of the european union. So what will change? Very little. The UK now enters the implementation period which will see it subject to EU law, the customs union and the internal market. It will not participate in the institutions of the European Union so today our MEPs will be packing their bags and coming home.
The implementation period will cease at 11 pm our time on 31 December. In the meantime the UK government is now free to start official negotiations with the EU and with the US and other states for free trade agreements. These cannot be implemented, though until the implementation period comes to an end.
The Brussels Regime on Jurisdiction and Judgments would cease to be part of UK domestic law on ‘exit day’ pursuant to 2019 No. 479 Exiting the European Union Private International Law. The Civil Jurisdiction and Judgment (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. This has not been repealed, but under ss 1and 2 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 the whole corpus of EU law will remain effective in the UK during the implementation period, including the Brussels Regime.
The UK acceded to The Hague Convention on choice of court agreements on 28 December 2018, followed by a series of suspensions until exit day which come to an end on 1 February 2020. Cometh the exit day cometh the Convention. Previously the UK was a party to the Convention via its EU membership. That will cease at 11pm tonight. At 00.01 tomorrow it will now be a party in its own right. However, in its declaration of 30.10.2019 the UK Government stated
“In the event that a Withdrawal Agreement is signed, ratified and approved by the United Kingdom and the European Union and enters into force prior to or on 1 February 2020, the United Kingdom will withdraw the Instrument of Accession which it deposited on 28 December 2018.”
This does not appear to have happened yet.
