RATIO DECIDENDI

Good question! In so far as the day-to-day running of the UK, the Brexit decision has ‘taken back control’ such that ECJ is no longer the final decision maker vis-a-vis internal legal disputes.

HOWEVER!!! Because of the geographical location of Northern Ireland and its juxtaposition with the Republic of Ireland, there remains a problem. As a result of the Brexit vote, there exists an issue whereby Northern Ireland, an important part of the United Kingdom, has to have controls imposed whereby there is not available the free movement of goods between NI and Europe. This is generally and issue governed by the ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’

For this ‘Protocol’ to work, there needs to be oversight in order to ensure the ongoing legality of, for example, the trade between the UK through Northern Ireland and Europe in the form of the Republic of Ireland. And therein lies the rub.

The oversight that is established and that regulates and determines the meaning of the Northern Ireland Protocol is the Court of Justice of the European Union (the European Court of Justice in common parlance).

There is a lot of sabre rattling in UK at the moment trying to remove the ECJ from this oversight position but, at the same time, the EU has stated that there is no way that ECJ will be removed from their oversight responsibilities because it is ONLY the ECJ that has the authority to interpret EU law.

In established decisions of the ECJ, of which UK was an active participant, I imagine that previous Ratio Decidendi will continue to be binding but any post-Brexit case ratios will not apply … unless they involve the UK through the NI Protocol.

In brief … what a mess!

OK?