Two observations on public awareness of the Brexit debate and their impact on what can be done. (Thread)
1) The public - even an expert legal public - is not aware just how broad FTAs have become. /2
This includes enormously qualified outstanding lawyers - including judges in apex courts. International law already is a specialized field, international trade law is a specialty within a specialty. /3
The effect of this is negative: as EU-UK is the first time many people notice, the scope of it is a shock. No amount of "read USMCA, read UK-Japan, read CPTPP" will change that. /4
And the fact that EU-UK because of the amount of trade, the size of the actors and the geographic closeness raises the level-playing field issue that is rampant world-wide to another level does nothing to help. /5
2) As to the concrete Brexit debate some of it seems to be stuck in 2017. Including demands of extending EU law ("dynamic alignment") and powers of the ECJ that, with the lowering of expectations, seem to no longer form part of the demands.
This actually creates an opening. As some seem to expect the EU demands the UK follow EU law everywhere, the fact that this won't be in the FTA (as it's not even in the EU demands anymore) creates an opening.
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