Today’s Daily Telegraph runs with a story hinting that UK EU negotiators may ditch one of Theresa May’s red lines:
Government may be ready to accept continued jurisdiction of ECJ after Brexit
So far, there has been no suggestion that the UK Government intend to do this, but the article quotes Brandon Lewis (Immigration Minister) so it has to be taken seriously. Back in January, May gave a speech at Lancaster House where she insisted that ending ECJ jurisdiction was a red line, so we should take that at face value until she says otherwise.
It’s more likely that the Government will propose that ECJ will have a role in enforcing rights of EU citizens as part of an arbitration facility – similar to EFTA court – where the UK supreme court & ECJ are equal partners. With neither having any primacy over the other.
There is also the question of whether May will agree to preserve EU citizenship rights. The position so far is to offer ‘settled’ status – effectively conferring rights of UK citizenship to EU citizens who remain post-Brexit.
But if the Government does concede and accept preservation of EU citizenship rights, this will create parallel sets of legal rights among the UK population. This would lead to an unreasonable & unacceptable state of inequality, and I’m sure the Government would not even entertain such an idea.
if we do end up with an arbitration facility that assists the ECJ and the UK Supreme court in enforcing citizenship rights, I have no objection to that. To be honest, I don’t see the point in it, because I’m happy that UK Supreme court is fair. But… no problem with it.