BiE launched a policy report on Brexit: Opportunities, Challenges and the Road Ahead, on 25 October 2016, with a roundtable event at the British Academy.
The report brings together academic scholars, barristers, legal professionals, business leaders and educational experts, and makes policy recomnmendations in relation to a wide range of areas affected by Brexit, from constitutional law to business and immigration, and from security to culture to judicial cooperation and environmental protection.
The report can be accessed from here.
The 100-page report argues that Brexit will bring acute challenges to everything from business to human rights, and international trade to higher education.
It urges the UK Government to retain a strong international outlook to effectively tackle these challenges. Among its reccomendations, it states that:
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The Government must ensure that businesses remain able to source expertise and specialist skills from the EU
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The imposition of tariffs must be avoided
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Universities need to remain open to the best ideas and knowledge wherever they come from
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The Government must safeguard the current attractiveness of the UK as a primary destination for corporate and financial restructuring
The report also strongly criticises isolationist trends and an emerging culture of exclusion – the product of divisive immigration political rhetoric – and calls upon the Government to offer reassurances to all non-UK EU citizens in the country that they will continue to enjoy equal protection with UK citizens after the formal exit from the EU.
On the other hand, the BiE report finds that Brexit creates opportunities for a fresh start on a number of areas. It can trigger a search for a new corporate culture more focussed on stakeholders and society, act as a catalyst for much-needed constitutional change, including the adoption of a written constitution, and it also makes realignment with the European Convention on Human Rights – and reinstating faith in the Human Rights Act – a necessity if the UK is to avoid a looming human rights deficit with the imminent departure from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The roundtable event was opened by Brunel University Vice Chancellor, Prof Julia Buckingham.
The former Attorney General, Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP, reflected on the road ahead with Brexit.
Prof Panos Koutrakos, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at City University London, discussed international trade agreements after Brexit.
BiE Director Dr Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos offered an overview of key observations and policy recommendations in the report.
Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and Prof Arad Reisberg provided concluding observations.
Participants to the policy report, and a wider academic and professional audience, provided analysis of key findings.
For press inquiries, contact bie@brunel.ac.uk
Dominic Grieve QC MP (left) and Prof Panos Koutrakos (right), with BiE director Dr Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, at the BiE launch of the policy report on Brexit © Sally Trussler
Head of Brunel Law School, Prof Arad Reisberg © Sally Trussler