Legal aspects of Brexit
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Lecturer Ovidiu – Horia MAICAN
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Abstrac t
The Brexi t referendum v ote has mainly po litical implicatio ns and no direct legal
effect. The a rticle 50 of the Trea ty on Eu ropean Un ion al lows member st ates to wit hdraw
from th e Europea n Union in accordance with its own consti tutional requirements. After the
referendum is a perio d of two years from the british notice of intentio n to withd raw to
negot iate terms of exit un less all the other member stat es agree to exten d it. Article 50 pu t
the balance of power firmly in t he hands of the 27 other states more tha n the leavin g state.
After the time limit in articl e 50 is e xpiring, Europen Union i n theory l aw ceases to app ly in
the Unite d Kingdom. In the same ti me, separa ting Europea n law from british na tional law
will b e an complicat ed process.
Keywords: European Unio n, Brexit, withdraw al, alternat ives.
JEL Cla ssification: K33
1. Introduction
Currently, the following points arise from a legal standpoint.
Due to the lack of a written constitution classic, Britain could join and
withdraw from the European Union using a simple law passed by Parliament
without any need for changes to the Constitution, a process more difficult.
Even after the referendum, there are a number of options in terms of legal
and procedural framework through which Parliament can be involved.
2. Gene ral aspects
The lenght of Brexit process will depend on when the article 50 process is
started and if it takes longer than the two years specified in the article 50. The
incertitude over Pa rliament’s role in pushing forward article 50 and the consequent
legal process in the United Kingdom and possibly the EU might delay the start of
negotiations and prolong the withdrawal process.
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This article w as submitt ed to 6th International Conference “ Perspectives of Business Law in t he
Third M illennium”, 25 -26 November 2016, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies,
Bucharest, Romania.
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Ovidiu – Horia M aican – Law Dep artment, Bucharest U niversity of Economic Studies,
ovidiuszm@yahoo.com
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M iller, V, Brexit Unknowns, H ouse of Commons Library Briefing Paper 7761, 2016, p . 5.