After Brexit: How to use retained EU law in your Public Law practice from 2021 onwards

These seminars are vital to all those working in the fields of public law and social welfare. They cover the use of EU law in the UK after Brexit. How does it work? How does it fit into the rest of UK law? How may it be challenged? How does it affect your practice as a lawyer or case worker? 

After these seminars, delegates will be able to: 

• Identify EU-derived domestic legislation, direct EU legislation, and saved rights
• Use the provisions of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to identify and apply EU retained law as it applies in the UK
• Work out the relationship between provision of EU retained law and the rest of UK public law in their practice area
• Understand how to apply and interpret retained EU law in its domestic setting: supremacy, fundamental rights, general principles, damages, etc. 
• Apply the Human Rights Act 1998 to retained EU law 
• Know how Henry VIII powers in Brexit legislation are used to make regulations amend the statute book and how to challenge them
• Note the areas of practice where retained EU law makes a difference: immigration, employment, environment, social security, health and safety, professional qualifications, and equality and discrimination issues 

Seminar 1

1pm - 2pm, Thursday 11th February 2021
 Overview of the key legislative provisions (European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020, and the scope of delegated powers 

Seminar 2
1pm - 2pm, Friday 12th February 2021
Worked examples and practical tips for navigating retained EU law (and making the most of its rules and principles), as well as how to identify and challenge unlawful statutory instruments amending retained EU law. Dr Ruth Fox of the Hansard Society will join members of the Garden Court Chambers Public Law team for this seminar.

Speakers 

Adrian Berry, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Adrian’s practice spans a range of inter-related public law areas concerning citizenship, immigration, human rights, international protection, and social assistance. Adrian practises in Courts and Tribunals at all  levels from the First-tier Tribunal and County Court, through to the Senior Courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). He writes a blog on migration, citizenship, and free movement called Cosmopolis. He also has a blog on Nationality and Citizenship law.

Adrian has an extensive practice in relation to Brexit-related matters, EU Citizenship and the free movement of persons under EU law. He has appeared in numerous cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (including Chen, Teixeria, Dias, Alarappe, and Dakneviciute) and in numerous reported cases in domestic UK courts. He has a particular interest in EU law as it applies to EU Citizens and third country nationals in immigration and social welfare cases and in the Co-ordination of Social Security, Healthcare, and Pensions. His Cosmopolis blog contains a wealth of material on Brexit issues and EU law generally.

Abigail Holt, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Abigail is the Treasurer of the European Circuit of the Bar and has an interest in European law having spent time working with the team of référendaires in the Cabinet of UK Advocate General, Eleanor Sharpston at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. She also has experience of litigation arising from accidents suffered abroad. Abigail is knowledgeable in relation to Human Rights law and International Treaties and conventions, especially insofar as they impact on immigration and asylum law.

Abigail has a special interest in Brexit-related changes and retained EU-law. Abigail has experience of litigation arising out of accidents abroad. She also has considerable expertise in relation to free movement of European Citizens. She has knowledge of European law in other contexts, and at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, she worked on cases involving employment rights and discrimination; trademarks; competition (satellite TV services) harmonisation of VAT and rules pertaining to “turnover” taxes. 

Ollie Persey, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Ollie is a public law barrister. He joined Garden Court Chambers from Public Law Project, where he gained considerable experience of strategic litigation at all domestic levels including the Supreme Court.  He has particular expertise in judicial review claims raising discrimination, education, EU citizens’ rights and retained EU law issues. Ollie coordinated Public Law Project’s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) support hub, providing second-tier advice to Law Centres and other organisations assisting vulnerable EU citizens and family members to apply to the EUSS. 

Having worked on Brexit-related public law issues for three years at Public Law Project, he has in-depth knowledge of Appendix EU, the Withdrawal Agreement, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 and the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020. He has experience of high-profile Brexit-related judicial reviews, including Miller & Cherry v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, in which the Supreme Court held that the prorogation of Parliament was unlawful. Public Law Project’s intervention focused on the importance of Parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit-related statutory instruments. Ollie welcomes instructions in judicial review claims concerning EU citizens’ rights and questions of retained EU law. 

Dr Ruth Fox, Director and Head of Research, Hansard Society (Exclusively joining for Seminar 2)
Ruth is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of the Society and leads its research programme. She has appeared before more than a dozen parliamentary select committees and inquiries, and regularly contributes to a wide range of current affairs programmes on radio and television, commentating on parliamentary process and political reform.

In 2012 she served as adviser to the independent Commission on Political and Democratic Reform in Gibraltar, and in 2013 as an independent member of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee Review Group. Prior to joining the Society in 2008, she was head of research and communications for a Labour MP and Minister and ran his general election campaigns in 2001 and 2005 in a key marginal constituency.

In 2004 she worked for Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign in the battleground state of Florida. In 1999-2001 she worked as a Client Manager and historical adviser at the Public Record Office (now the National Archives), after being awarded a PhD in political history (on the electoral strategy and philosophy of the Liberal Party 1970-1983) from the University of Leeds, where she also taught Modern European History and Contemporary International Politics.