• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Yorkshire Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
    The small number of trees shows that even the high uplands of the Dales was a woodland environment. Much has been nibbled down to the ground by heavy populations of sheep. Photo by Andy Brown

    Government policies destroying upland Yorkshire farming with no regard for the land or our health

    schools bill

    Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

    Emmanuel Macron

    French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    cost of living march london

    Trade union movement marches to demand better

    European Union

    After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Refugee Week

    Refugee week: a chance to celebrate refugees

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Coronavirus
    • Labour
    • Starmer
    • NI Protocol
    • Brexit
    • Culture
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Culture
    • Dance
    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Recipes
    • Sport
    Nostell Priory, Wakefield

    Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

    Headingley Cricket Stadium

    A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

    Bettys' Fat Rascals

    Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

    'Woke' beliefs

    Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Red Ladder

    Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

    Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

    Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

    Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

    Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

    Queen cakes fit for a Queen

    Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Sport
  • Business
    • All
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
    Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

    International Women in Engineering Day 2022

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    conservative party

    The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

    Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

    Money on the floor - £20 notes

    The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

    Financial problems

    Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

    An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

    Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

    Jar with money cascading out of it

    Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

    Trending Tags

      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
    • Region
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Brexit
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
      The small number of trees shows that even the high uplands of the Dales was a woodland environment. Much has been nibbled down to the ground by heavy populations of sheep. Photo by Andy Brown

      Government policies destroying upland Yorkshire farming with no regard for the land or our health

      schools bill

      Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

      Emmanuel Macron

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      cost of living march london

      Trade union movement marches to demand better

      European Union

      After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Refugee Week

      Refugee week: a chance to celebrate refugees

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      Trending Tags

      • Johnson
      • Coronavirus
      • Labour
      • Starmer
      • NI Protocol
      • Brexit
      • Culture
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Culture
      • Dance
      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Recipes
      • Sport
      Nostell Priory, Wakefield

      Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

      Headingley Cricket Stadium

      A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

      Bettys' Fat Rascals

      Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

      'Woke' beliefs

      Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Red Ladder

      Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

      Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

      Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

      Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

      Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

      Queen cakes fit for a Queen

      Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
      Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

      International Women in Engineering Day 2022

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      conservative party

      The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

      Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

      Money on the floor - £20 notes

      The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

      Financial problems

      Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

      An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

      Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      Trending Tags

        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Region
      No Result
      View All Result
      Yorkshire Bylines
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home News Brexit

      UK proves ineligible for Lugano membership

      The Lugano Convention offered political and economic advantages for the UK; the nation has been denied re-entry due to mistrust and Brexit.

      Kerry PearsonbyKerry Pearson
      06-09-2021 17:59
      in Brexit, Economy, World
      inf1002 on Flickr: Law

      inf1002 on Flickr: Law

      1k
      VIEWS
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
      ADVERTISEMENT

      The negative consequences of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union vis-à-vis international trade, are profound. More recently, the government has found itself, according to CNN, “at the mercy of EU leaders” while requesting to re-join the Lugano Convention (2007).

      UK refused entry to the Lugano Convention

      The convention is an international treaty tying together EU states and other European states from the European Free Trade Association, such as Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. It clarifies which national courts have jurisdiction in commercial and cross-border disputes, thereby ensuring that courts’ judgments are enforced across borders.

      For years, London has been regarded as the ‘global capital’ for resolving such international disputes, due to Britain’s highly esteemed criminal justice system. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general for England and Wales, reiterates this:

      “There’s no doubt that the UK, when it was in the EU, was seen as the place of dispute resolution of choice for EU litigation of every conceivable kind”.

      The UK automatically left the Lugano Convention when it left the EU, but last April the UK government applied to re-join Lugano as a solo state. While non-EU signatory states like Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, agreed to its readmission, the European Commission advised EU members to deny the request.

      What benefits did Lugano provide the UK?

      There are many benefits to the Lugano Convention. It provides a reliable and efficient way to establish which national jurisdiction should hear a cross-border civil or commercial dispute, as well as ensuring speedy recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial court rulings.

      The UK also enjoyed extensive political and economic advantages through its membership. The legal services sector in Britain employs a staggering 350,000 people, two-thirds of whom live outside London. In 2018, legal services contributed just under £60bn to the UK economy, according to the Law Society , and in 2017 the exporting of legal services abroad added £5bn.

      Brexit ended all this. States can only become members of the Lugano convention if they are regarded as being on a high level of mutual trust with the EU. It comes as no surprise that the UK is not seen as trustworthy. The UK government’s pursuit of a ‘hard brexit’, their refusal to comply with international law, and the continuation of corruption, sleaze and lies, has eroded trust.

      Zach Meyers and Camino Mortera-Martinez of the Centre for European Reform (CER) think-tank, suggested that the EU Commission opposed the UK’s re-entry to the convention because “Britain remains a difficult partner for the EU on a range of issues, not least in honouring its own word”.

      The UK must surrender its position as litigation hub

      Now, the UK will have to surrender its position as a ‘litigation hub’ for EU disputes. Many disputes will no longer be taken to London courts. Worse, the UK government insists on non-alignment with the EU and as a result, shuts itself out of mutually beneficial arrangements. So now, the UK will have to revert to the regime we had prior to joining the EU. This means disputes will be subject to the national laws of each Lugano signatory. This will result in lengthy court processes, and enforcing judgments will be more a great deal more complicated and difficult.

      Joseph Galez, a former Spanish judge who worked in both Del Canto Chambers in London and Galvez Pascual in Spain, said: “This Lugano limbo the UK finds itself in is the worst situation possible as lawyers on both sides have no clarity on what will happen in the long term. I think the EU wants to make the UK suffer and give EU jurisdictions the opportunity to take business from England.”

      But let’s remember, the British government is solely responsible for refusing any alignment with the EU that could have avoided this situation.

      Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, worries that “ordinary people” and “smaller businesses” will suffer. They undoubtedly will.

      As court proceedings become more complex and time-consuming, SMEs are set to bear the brunt of this avoidable situation. Businesses without legal departments, or those that cannot readily afford or access legal advice, face higher risks when trading with the EU and will have to cover the costs involved in any disputes.

      Trade with the EU has already dropped significantly owing to Brexit.

      What options does the UK have?

      The Law Society Gazette suggests that one alternative for the UK, now that it cannot re-join Lugano, is the 2005 Hague Convention on choice of court agreements, where party members recognise and decide a court to discuss international trade disputes. (The UK and the EU are already party to this convention.) However, a possible issue with the Hague Convention is that it only covers exclusive, limited jurisdiction agreements.

      In addition to the 2005 Convention is the more recent Hague Judgements Convention (2019); due to its broader scope, the EU Commission has suggested that the UK join this treaty. It does, however, fall short of Lugano.

      The UK government chose to take the UK out of a single market and put it back to the pre-1992 period, when everything had to be negotiated separately with each separate trading partner in any member state. The reason that no other EU member state has decided to leave the single market is because they know how damaging the consequences for their prosperity would be. And none of them want the onerous, costly burdens of going back to procedures that existed before they all decided to form the single market for mutual benefit.

      But this was never just about trade. In civil disputes, there weren’t arrangements to improve and smooth out the problems arising, for example, from cross-border family disputes, including divorce and child custody. The EU gradually facilitated a more predictable and smoother system. The UK government chose to leave that and individuals will suffer as a result.

      Being outside the EU has put British businesses and people on a unique footing: it is back to the 1980s. The problem is that the world has move on since then – forwards not backwards. And the UK government ignored experts and warnings. The consequences are alarming and worst of all, could have been avoided.

      ADVERTISEMENT
      Previous Post

      Rebugging the planet

      Next Post

      York City of Sanctuary: its achievements and the seismic shift necessary

      Kerry Pearson

      Kerry Pearson

      Kerry is in her final year at University of Leeds studying international history and politics. She is interested in geopolitical issues and has written articles for Bylines, the Gryphon, Leeds Human Rights Journal and Leeds History Student Times, on different international events. Kerry is passionate about human rights, foreign policy and the environment. She enjoys discussing current events - particularly humanitarian issues - with friends and family.

      Related Posts

      Emmanuel Macron
      Politics

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      byAnn Moody
      25 June 2022
      European Union
      Politics

      After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

      byRichard Corbett
      21 June 2022
      conservative party
      Economy

      The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

      byAndy Brown
      21 June 2022
      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0
      Music

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      byLucy Pickering
      20 June 2022
      cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector
      Economy

      Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

      byJohn Heywood
      16 June 2022
      Next Post
      Signage, York Museum Garden by Dave Pickersgill is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

      York City of Sanctuary: its achievements and the seismic shift necessary

      Want to support us?

      Can you help Yorkshire Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

      DONATE

      Sign up to our newsletter

      If you would like to receive the Yorkshire Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

      NEWSLETTER

      LATEST

      The small number of trees shows that even the high uplands of the Dales was a woodland environment. Much has been nibbled down to the ground by heavy populations of sheep. Photo by Andy Brown

      Government policies destroying upland Yorkshire farming with no regard for the land or our health

      27 June 2022
      schools bill

      Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

      27 June 2022
      Conservative Party Meeting

      Hypocrisy, desperation and excuses: Conservative Party clutch at straws over by-election losses

      27 June 2022
      Nostell Priory, Wakefield

      Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

      26 June 2022

      MOST READ

      schools bill

      Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

      27 June 2022
      Conservative Party Meeting

      Hypocrisy, desperation and excuses: Conservative Party clutch at straws over by-election losses

      27 June 2022
      10/05/2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the House of Commons. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

      The country needs more than just ‘Booting Boris out of Downing Street’

      26 June 2022
      Photo credit Robert Sharp / englishpenLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

      The Davis Downside Dossier

      1 January 2021

      BROWSE BY TAGS

      antivaxxers Charity climate change Coronavirus Cost of living Creative industries Crime Cummings Democracy Devolution education Equality Farming Fishing hgv History Immigration Johnson Journalism Labour Local Democracy Mental Health mining money NHS NI Protocol omicron Pies pollution poverty PPE Public Health Review shortage social media Starmer tax travel Ukraine Yorkshire
      Yorkshire Bylines

      Yorkshire Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Yorkshire and beyond.

      Learn more about us

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Contact
      • About
      • Letters
      • Donate
      • Privacy
      • Bylines network
      • Shop

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • News
        • Brexit
        • Education
        • Environment
        • Health
        • Home Affairs
        • Transport
        • World
      • Politics
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyle
        • Culture
        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Donate
      • The Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers
      • The Davis Downside Dossier
      • The Digby Jones Index
      • Newsletter sign up
      • Cartoons by Stan
      • Authors

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In