Source: http://www.howtocrackanut.com/blog/2017/8/23/uk-governments-position-paper-on-cjeu-jurisdiction-a-short-list-of-tricky-issues
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 07:14:32+00:00

Document:
Earlier today, the UK Government has published its position paper on the jurisdiction of the CJEU post-Brexit: Enforcement and dispute resolution - a future partnership paper (23 August 2017). The paper has been received as constructive by eg David Allen Green and Prof Armstrong, and Prof Peers has stressed on twitter that there is a clash of redlines despite the effort the paper makes to distinguish issues of enforcement (of individual rights) and dispute resolution (between the UK and the EU). I am sure I have already missed some useful reactions and that the commentary on the position paper will keep piling up in the coming hours.
With this post, I only intend to highlight some of the tricky issues that I have identified on first reading of the paper. They are presented in the same order of the relevant paragraphs of the paper where they first appear, but this does not necessarily reflect their level of trickiness.
The way the position in EU is depicted may be too simplistic, in particular concerning the acceptance of international dispute resolution agreements. For example, paragraph 20 refers to the Association Agreements with Ukraine and Moldova as instances where the EU has accepted submission to binding (international) arbitration mechanisms.
However, taking the EU-Ukraine Agreement as example, the arbitration mechanism is limited due to the need to ensure CJEU supremacy when it comes to interpretation of EU law. In that regard, Art 322(2) clearly establishes that '[w]here a dispute raises a question of interpretation of a provision of EU law [relating to regulatory approximation contained in Chapter 3 (Technical Barriers to Trade), Chapter 4 (Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures), Chapter 5 (Customs and Trade Facilitation), Chapter 6 (Establishment, Trade in Services and Electronic Commerce), Chapter 8 (Public Procurement) or Chapter 10 (Competition), or which otherwise imposes upon a Party an obligation defined by reference to a provision of EU law], the arbitration panel shall not decide the question, but request the Court of Justice of the European Union to give a ruling on the question. In such cases, the deadlines applying to the rulings of the arbitration panel shall be suspended until the Court of Justice of the European Union has given its ruling. The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union shall be binding on the arbitration panel'. Given that these are matters that would be at the core of an EU-UK agreement, the extent to which agreeing on binding internal arbitration would circumvent (direct) CJEU jurisdiction to interpret EU law and identical provisions can be questioned.
This is however presented in very soft terms in the position paper. In relation with the EU-Moldova Agreement, and under the heading 'Provision for voluntary references to CJEU for interpretation', the position paper indicates that '[t]his approach can apply in respect of both judicial and political dispute resolution models. For example, Article 403 of the EU Moldova Association Agreement requires that an arbitration panel established to resolve disputes shall, where the dispute concerns interpretation of EU law, refer the question to the CJEU and be bound by its interpretation' (para 56, emphasis added); and that 'In the case of the Moldova Association Agreement, the responsibility to make a reference rests with the arbitration panel ... These examples do not involve one party to the agreement deciding, unilaterally, to seek a binding interpretation of the agreement from the CJEU' (para 58). While this is *technically* correct, it is also presented in a misleading way because should an arbitration panel not seek the CJEU's interpretation, whcih it is required to do so, the final award would clearly not be enforceable. Ultimately, in my view, the restrictions derived from the need to ensure the CJEU's position as sole interpreter of EU law create a much harder and relevant restriction on the design of international arbitration or other dispute resolution mechanisms than the image that evaporates from the position paper.
Whether the EU would accept to the creation of another, parallel court, like the EFTA Court can be highly questioned. The assumption in para 21 that the EFTA court is a 'model' that can be replicated seems to me difficult to accept. In my opinion, the only way of benefiting from that solution would be for the UK to become a member of the European Economic Area (which the UK Government does not want to pursue), or else for the EFTA Court to be reformed to expand its jurisdiction to the EEA + UK (which seems unlikely). In my opinion, the creation of another institution with EFTA Court features but with jurisdiction only for the EU-UK relationship does not seem plausible.
This has a major effect on the viability of post-Brexit coordination of UK and CJEU case law as discussed in paras 46-51 of the position paper because, as is clear from all the examples in that section, the mechanisms for mutual coordination of jurisprudence have so far only been accepted within the scope of the EEA (+ Switzerland). Outside of the scope of the EEA / EFTA Court jurisdiction, it seems difficult to see the EU accepting this type of mechanisms, which are the historical result of a different time of the European integration process. Moreover, the UK government seems to point at differential approaches to case law coordination when it indicates that 'extent to which this approach may be valuable depends on the extent to which there is agreement that divergence should be avoided in specific areas' (para 51). It seems difficult to accept that the EU can tolerate divergence in any areas that are considered of relevance in the context of the future EU-UK relationship (and those not relevant, are likely to be or end up outside of the framework).
The position that 'in both the UK and the EU, individuals and businesses will be able to enforce rights and obligations within the internal legal orders of the UK and the EU respectively, including through access to the highest courts within those legal orders. This would be the case in respect of both the Withdrawal Agreement, including an agreement on citizens’ rights, and the future partnership' (para 23) seems to simplistic to me. First, because this is precisely one of the redlines of the EU's negotiating position, which has indicated that there has to be a 'possibility of administrative or court proceedings to be initiated post-exit for facts that have occurred before the withdrawal date' (para 16 of EU negotiating guidelines), which implies the need to preserve CJEU intervention for the interpretation of the relevant EU law provisions as they applied at the time of the material facts. Second, because litigation is likely to raise complex issues of conflict of laws that can hardly be addressed unilaterally by either of the legal systems.
As recognised in yesterday's position paper on cross-border civil and commercial litigation: 'Ending the direct jurisdiction of the CJEU in the UK will not weaken the rights of individuals, nor call into question the UK’s commitment to complying with its obligations under international agreements; where appropriate, the UK and the EU will need to ensure future civil judicial cooperation takes into account regional legal arrangements, including the fact that the CJEU will remain the ultimate arbiter of EU law within the EU' (para 20, emphasis added). The same will, of course, happen in every other dimension of legal relationships and, consequently, the same mechanism to 'take account of the position of the CJEU' will need to be extended universally. In my view, this is far away from the streamlined assumption that litigation will be contained in either of the jurisdictions.
Interestingly and confusingly, para 24 of today's position paper takes a different approach and stresses that 'Ending the direct jurisdiction of the CJEU in the UK will not weaken the rights of individuals, nor call into question the UK’s commitment to complying with its obligations under international agreements. The UK’s commitment to the rule of law has been built over centuries, and reaffirmed time and again by effective, independent courts. That commitment to the rule of law means that anyone seeking redress within the UK’s legal systems will know they will be judged by clear rules applied in accordance with the law by the UK’s expert, independent and internationally respected judiciary.' The extent to which both position papers are in contradiction, or the extent to which the UK government can seriously aim to create CJEU-friendly mechanisms for civil and commercial matters and simultaneously CJEU-avoiding mechanisms for eg public law seems to me to be prone to provoke more than a few headaches for anyone trying to solve the puzzle.
Overall, I think that the conclusion in the position paper that 'there are a number of additional means [not involving the direct jurisdiction of the CJEU] by which the EU has entered into agreements which offer assurance of effective enforcement and dispute resolution and, where appropriate, avoidance of divergence, without necessitating the direct jurisdiction of the CJEU over a third party' (para 67) may be overstated and that the position paper, while more flexible than could have been expected, still seems to head full steam ahead for a clash with the unique position of the CJEU in interpreting EU law and preserving individual (citizens') rights. Time will tell.

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