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On Friday 19 May 2017, Jack Williams gave the keynote address at the Young Bar of Northern Ireland’s annual conference which was themed “The Legal Impact and Opportunities of Brexit”.
Jack was asked to address “The Constitutional Impact of Brexit”. He started by assessing the impact of R (Miller and Dos Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5 which was a key milestone in beginning the process of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The case afforded the courts (and Jack in his lecture) an opportunity to address a range of matters relating to the operation of the UK’s uncodified constitution. Jack then looked ahead to assess the next key events along the path to Brexit, and in what ways the journey will test the UK’s constitution (and provide “opportunities” for legal practitioners). In this regard, Jack analysed future litigation possibilities in relation to each stage of the journey ahead, including: the Great Repeal Bill, the EU law obligations during the negotiation phase, the final deal (regarding both citizens’ acquired rights from an EU law perspective, and UK constitutional law questions concerning any final deal), and longer term issues post 29 June 2019.
Jack was junior counsel for one of the interested parties in R (Miller and Dos Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5 at both Divisional and Supreme court levels. He has recently been commissioned by Hart Publishing to co-edit a book (with Professor Mark Elliott and Professor Alison Young) on the constitutional impact of the case. Having also undertaken a traineeship at the CJEU with Judge Vajda and a secondment in the Bank of England’s EU Withdrawal Unit, Jack is well-placed to assist both private and public clients with a range of Brexit-related matters.