The UK in a Changing Europe (see sidebar on the right) has produced an interesting pamphlet about what they call "the immense legal, constitutional and bureaucratic challenges involved in the Brexit process". Download it HERE.
It argues one of the first steps in the negotiations will be to decide if both a withdrawal and a trade agreement can be conducted in parallel. This in itself must eat into the two year time frame.
They also see that a second referendum under the 2011 Act may be needed to approve any new treaty unless this Act is repealed - and I am not sure how parliament would be able to explain this away.
We will, according to them, have to reapply for WTO membership and other countries may drive a hard bargain for this. And it may even be possible to unilaterally revoke article 50 but there may be troubling legal implications if we do.
I did not realise that there are some shared competences between the EU and the devolved administrations which don't pass through Westminster. This will need to be revised but political problems are forecast if the devolved administrations seem to be losing power to Westminster. There is much more in the pamphlet but in the conclusions are some important points:
In voting to leave the EU, the British people have unleashed a process potentially as complex as it is unpredictable.
The Brexit process will test the UK’s constitutional and legal frameworks and bureaucratic capacities to their limits - and possibly beyond
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