On March 27, with the British prime minister and Parliament still deeply mired in disagreement over terms for leaving the European Union, a Latham & Watkins Forum explored the origins of the unprecedented political impasse and pondered what might be required to reach a Brexit resolution. The panelists included Robert Howse, Lloyd C. Nelson Professor of International Law; Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Director of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford; and Rob Moulton, a partner in the London office of Latham & Watkins and member of the firm’s Brexit Task Force.
“How is it possible that, two days before the date of automatic exit, [three] years after the vote, the referendum vote, how is it possible that we're still in a situation—as I think the BBC news put it yesterday in one of their headlines—in a permanent series of question marks?” moderator Gráinne de Búrca, Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law, asked in her opening remarks.
Watch video of the discussion here:
“Brexit as a topic defies the normal political discourse,” said Moulton. “It does not fall into our party political system…because different parts of different parties think different things about whether the EU is a good or bad thing.”
Prime Minister Theresa May has tried to keep her party together, he added, without actually getting members to agree. “If two years ago she’d have settled on one particular route out, she would’ve had resignations from every part of her government that didn’t agree with it,” Moulton said. “And so it’s been the classic can down the road.…Two days before the supposed date, we’re only getting around to deciding how to try and do anything, because any earlier decision [would have destroyed] the government.”
Posted April 8, 2019