Research Briefing
Disputes over the British Indian Ocean Territory: December 2019 update
This paper has been replaced by another Library briefing paper: Disputes over the British Indian Ocean Territory: February 2021 update.
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Research Briefing
Brexit questions in national and EU courts
It has been predicted that Brexit issues will give rise to many legal actions in UK and other Member States' courts, and the Court of Justice of the EU. While there have not yet been a great many, several cases have been brought by UK citizens living in other EU Member States, while other cases have been interesting for their implications for the UK's future relations with the EU. This paper looks at issues that have been the subject of legal action in UK and EU courts.
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Research Briefing
Withdrawal Agreement Bill: The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland
What does the Withdrawal Agreement Bill say about what will happen to Northern Ireland post-Brexit? How will it translate into UK law the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the Withdrawal Agreement that replaced the 'backstop'?
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Research Briefing
Revisions to the Political Declaration on the framework for future EU-UK relations
The UK and EU agreed a revised Political Declaration on the framework for the future UK-EU relationship on 17 October. This Briefing provides an outline of the contents of the Declaration and the key changes in the revised text
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Research Briefing
The October 2019 EU UK Withdrawal Agreement
Boris Johnson's Government negotiated a new 'deal' with the European Union, formed of a Political Declaration and a Withdrawal Agreement. This paper focuses on the Withdrawal Agreement and how it compares to the one negotiated by Theresa May's Government.
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Research Briefing
Northern Ireland, Citizenship and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement
The definition of 'EEA citizen' in the rules for the Home Office's settled status scheme has recently changed. What are the consequences? How do these changes affect the people of Northern Ireland? Why are some people unhappy with these changes? What does British nationality law say about people born in Northern Ireland? How do these nationality laws interact with the birthright provision of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement? What does the European Convention on Human Rights say about identity and immigration? What do the people of Northern Ireland say when they are asked about their nationality? This paper looks at the complex issues behind all these questions.
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Research Briefing
No-deal Brexit: A guide to Commons Library research
The No-deal Brexit: A guide to Commons Library research is an annotated bibliography of sources published by the House of Commons Library on a potential no-deal Brexit. It will be updated regularly. Links to the papers included in the resource are available on this page, the downloadable version includes additional comment on some of the selected papers.
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Research Briefing
Demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
On 2 August 2019 the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. In place for over 30 years, it was considered a cornerstone of the international arms control architecture as it was the first treaty to eliminate an entire category of weapons from the nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia and ended a nuclear stand-off in Europe. What are the implications of its demise for European security and the arms control agenda more broadly?
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Research Briefing
A no-deal Brexit: the Johnson Government
Commons Briefing Paper 8397, What if there's no Brexit deal? considered among other things how the UK and the EU arrived at a situation in which a no-deal Brexit might happen. This paper considers the position since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July.
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Research Briefing
The United Nations Global Compact for Migration
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was formally adopted by 164 Member States of the United Nations, including the UK, in December 2018. This briefing explains what's in the Compact and its implications for Member States.
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Research Briefing
UK-EU relations after Brexit: an Association Agreement?
We don't know what the future relationship between the UK and the EU will be. It has been suggested that an Association Agreement might be appropriate because it is a fairly flexible kind of agreement and can include a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area. But an Association Agreement also requires a degree of legislative approximation of the third country with the laws of the EU, and it isn't clear whether the UK Government would find this acceptable. This paper looks at the scope and contents of some existing Association Agreements.
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Research Briefing
Brexit: parliamentary scrutiny of UK replacement treaties
The UK is party to hundreds of international treaties with third states or organisations, many of them on trade, by virtue of its EU membership. To continue to benefit from the advantages of these agreements, the Government has been seeking to replace them in a UK bilateral context. The Government has prioritised trade agreements, but has also agreed replacement agreements covering aviation services and safety, and road transport, for example. But Parliament is not happy about the way the Government is carrying out this 'treaty continuity programme' and Committees in both Houses have called for a greater scrutiny role for Parliament in treaty-making processes. This paper looks at what has been going on and what Parliamentary Committees in both Houses have asked for. It includes a table showing where we are with scrutiny of these treaties and what sort of scrutiny they have undergone, both in their precursor form as EU treaties and currently as replacement treaties.
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Research Briefing
The UK’s EU Withdrawal Agreement
This briefing looks in detail at the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the EU and UK and finalised on 14 November 2018. It was endorsed by EU Member State leaders at a special European Council summit on 25 November and the UK Prime Minister promoted it in the UK Parliament and around the country. The Agreement was debated at length in Parliament on several occasions and has been voted on three times. But the House of Commons has not endorsed it. A second extension of Article 50 took exit day to 31 October 2019, but once again the UK is faced with the possibility of leaving the EU without an agreement if this agreement or another one is not ratified by the UK and the EU.
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Debate Pack
The continued importance of International Humanitarian Law in protecting civilians in conflict
A Westminster Hall debate on 'The continued importance of International Humanitarian Law in protecting civilians in conflict’ has been scheduled for Tuesday 18 June 2019, from 9:30-11:00am. The debate will be led by Ann Clwyd MP, Andrew Mitchell MP, Tom Brake MP and Stephen Twigg MP.
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Research Briefing
World Trade in 2019: the US and the WTO
What is happening in the World Trade Organization, and how does this relate to the current US administration's trade policy? This briefing paper explores these two issues, and considers what consequences they might have for a post-Brexit UK.
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