Those who voted Brexit are now celebrating and singing ‘Rule Britannia’ in the streets. They are still dreaming. When they will wake up, they will have to face the facts: there is no Empire, and Brexit will not solve their economic problems. Immigrants will not be deported, and if foreigners decide to leave, this will not solve their problems either. One day, they will wake up to discover that the Kingdom is dis-United.
The United Kingdom is not a centralised state. It is a ‘family of nations’. There is a strong case for arguing that the referendum carries only if a majority of voters in all four nations respectively give their backing. England and Wales voted to leave, but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Recognising that split is not a matter of shifting the goalposts after the fact. It is about respecting an established, indeed a compelling constitutional order.
The fact that Scotland voted with 62% for the UK to remain a member of the EU whereas the majority of the overall UK electorate opted to leave the EU, raises important political and legal questions. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced that a second referendum on Scottish independence is on the table. What are the options for a continued EU membership of an independent Scotland?
Middlesex Law Professor Laurent Pech on the limits if not perils of direct democracy when citizens to are asked to decide complex policy choices in the absence of a clear understanding of the available options and potential consequences of their vote.
Young international law scholar Ntina Tzouvala on the difference between the "will of the people" and a manouevre of the political elite, and on the danger for Europe to carry around a constitutional corpse.
... and five very succinct answers by Cambridge EU law professor Kenneth Armstrong,
Edinburgh EU citizenship law expert Jo Shaw's answers to my set of questions on the occasion of the Brexit referendum.
Former Constitutional Court Judge Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff on why she deeply regrets to see the British go, on the reversibility of the Brexit decision, and on an independent Scotland's prospects to continued EU membership.
Viele Britinnen und Briten verzweifeln regelrecht angesichts der Aussicht, ihren "grundlegenden Status" (EuGH) als Unionsbürger ohne ihr Zutun und Verschulden einbüßen zu müssen. Da die Unionsbürgerschaft an die Staatsangehörigkeit in einem EU-Mitgliedsstaat geknüpft ist, wäre es ein starkes Zeichen für die europäische Integration, für Mit-Unionsbürger, die vom Verlust dieses Status akut bedroht sind, einen eigens auf sie zugeschnittenen Tatbestand in § 10 StAG zu schaffen.
What are the likely consequences of Brexit for the status and rights of British citizenship? Is it possible to mitigate the overwhelming negative consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on the plane of the rights enjoyed by the citizens of the UK? The Brexit referendum result will most likely mark one of the most radical losses in the value of a particular nationality in recent history.
13. September 2025
Giovanni Capoccia
12. September 2025
Anne Peters
12. September 2025
Anne Peters