Today's negotiation lesson:
No negotiation is ever stand-alone. It's coloured by what's come before and what follows for everyone involved.
So your actions, choices and words will matter down the line
No negotiation is ever stand-alone. It's coloured by what's come before and what follows for everyone involved.
So your actions, choices and words will matter down the line
To apply that to Art.50, yes, you could walk away, but that wouldn't mean the end of it, in either the narrow or the broader sense
Narrowly, walking away from the Withdrawal Agt would not only leave many points of regulation and politics in an uncertain legal situation, but would also likely result in extensive litigation for settlement of liabilities
Broadly, failure to secure the (relatively) easy bit of Brexit - wrapping up the UK's membership - means that securing the harder bit - a new relationship with the EU - will get even harder
It'll also give other states pause for thought about new agts, as they see a country that doesn't honour its commitments (as embodied in the EU's treaties)
Also, without a settled UK-EU trade deal in place, most third states will wait for clarity before pursuing their own trade talks with the UK
tl;dr negotiations don't only operate in the shadow of past actions and current words, but also in the shadow of what is to come
