I've seen the suggestion that the UK/EU trade agreement could be challenged by British businesses in the EU courts.

Three points.
First, standing to sue directly in the EU courts is subject to strict rules. It is very unlikely that UK businesses challenging the TCA will have standing.

They could, however, ask a national court to ask the CJEU to rule on the validity of the EU signing/concluding the treaty.
Second, there needs to be a substantive legal argument. This is conceivable, although the CJEU has tended to leave political discretion to the EU institutions as regards the content of trade policy.

"It's more difficult for UK businesses" is *not* a legal argument.
Third, the remedies. If it was illegal for the EU to sign/conclude the TCA, the consequence is not to overturn Brexit or to return to the transition period.

It's that the transition period ended with no trade deal. (NB the withdrawal agreement is a separate treaty)
It's conceivable that if the TCA were legally flawed in part, the CJEU would say the EU decision to sign/conclude it still applied for a short period, giving time to renegotiate.

Of course, the UK would have to agree to the revised version.
Several responses to this thread claim that non-EU companies have *no* access to EU courts. Untrue.

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More from @StevePeers

9 Jan
Some thoughts on the human rights aspects of this debate.

Yes, incitement to violence is an exception to free speech laws. But thresholds differ - "clear and present danger" in US higher bar to reach than ECHR.
The "shouts 'fire' in a crowded theatre" analogy isn't perfect here. More like "tells armed mob that their enemies are in the theatre, having also told the black people in the theatre to 'go home' to a country they aren't from for the duration of the film".
And, as widely pointed out, the bigger question is whether private companies have obligations under free speech law at all. Generally they don't. Asserting that they *should* do is not an argument that they already do.
Read 12 tweets
31 Dec 20
As the transition period ends, the #BrexitDeal applies from tomorrow. But there's also a parallel significant legal change - most of the rest of the withdrawal agreement starts to apply. A thread on the legal issues in the rest of that agreement.
The citizens' rights provisions of the withdrawal agreement (on EU citizens who moved to the UK, and UK citizens who moved to the EU, before the end of the transition period) start to apply.

Annotation and detailed analysis of those provisions here: eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2019/10/analys…
After today, UK citizens newly moving to the EU, or EU citizens newly moving to the UK, are in principle governed by national law (partly harmonised by the EU, on the EU side).

However, the #BrexitDeal contains some provisions on visas for service providers.
Read 12 tweets
25 Dec 20
Thanks, Santa!

A few preliminary comments...
Agreement on provisional application. It ends on February 28th but the EU and UK can agree to amend that date.
Dates to come up with a final version of the text in English and in EU languages.
Read 102 tweets
24 Dec 20
Johnson: "There will be no non-tariff barriers to trade" Errr
Replying to @Peston question Johnson sort of walks back his false claim on no non-tariff barriers
Johnson gives utterly vague answer to question on security cooperation
Read 5 tweets
24 Dec 20
Obviously a highly partial summary but still a lot of useful detail here.
Looks like that link to the summary of the deal is deleted but there's a link here
This version cuts out the bit at the end which says Vote Leave promises were kept (*waves to EU citizens*) and Theresa May was a disaster. Hope someone screenshot it?

Here's part of what's left, re legal services...presumably "improve" isn't a comparison to the status quo...
Read 7 tweets
17 Dec 20
CJEU, asylum law

New judgment: Hungary is in breach of EU laws on asylum procedures and reception conditions for asylum seekers
CJEU, animal welfare/freedom of religion

New judgment: Member States may ban religion-based practices of Muslim and Jewish groups re animals
Read 10 tweets

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