Baker & McKenzie’s London Information Technology, Communications and Commercial lawyers are going to bring you some thoughts on Brexit and the areas of law which our clients might consider focussing on as the negotiations for exit from the EU and our future trading relationship with the EU take shape.
We must stress first of all that the referendum result changed nothing in the short to medium term. The same laws, whether EU, UK or English, that governed commercial relationships before the referendum continue to govern it afterwards. The laws that were in force yesterday will be in force tomorrow. And EU laws which are to take effect before the UK leaves will still do so: the General Data Protection Regulation is one big example and you will seeing a lot more from us on that. And if the UK does remain part of the EU/EEA single market, very little at all will change, ever, except as part of the normal EU legislative process.
We mustn’t forget that English law, for centuries one of the world’s main choices for the law governing international contracts, will remain just that: our first main post will focus on that important issue.
So there is no need for any hasty decisions, but we must look to the future. Our plan for the next few weeks is to take distinct issues which our clients have raised and offer you our thoughts on them. As the process of rebooting our relationship with the EU takes shape and negotiations begin in earnest, these are some of the ITC/Commercial issues that we think should be focussed on. Some of these are about changes which may in the long term happen to the law; others, more important because immediate, are issues relating to the interpretation of existing contracts and the drafting of new ones. In future blogs we will discuss the potential impact of Brexit on jurisdiction clauses, commercial agency, consumer law, data protection and telecoms. We’re keen to hear from our clients with other ideas.
Please contact [email protected] for further information.
