UK: PM may have to backpedal over promise to enshrine EU law in domestic legislation

Prime Minister Theresa May may have to water down her promise to absorb all EU law into domestic legislation ahead of Brexit following reports the process was becoming a “legal nightmare”.

UK government lawyers are believed to be struggling with the task and experts have branded it impractical, The Times reports.

Others have now said that the bill would either be diluted or encounter “serious legal and practical difficulties” in Parliament.

Every Whitehall department is examining 40 years of EU directives and regulations, with some estimating there are 40,000 legal acts in the EU in addition to 15,000 rulings and 62,000 international standards – a former government lawyer said the process was “hideous”.

Michael Dougan, a professor of European law at Liverpool University, said: “You can’t just take the whole of EU law and plonk it into the UK legal system because so much of what the EU does is inherently cross-border in nature.

“Once you have left the EU that doesn’t make sense any more. You can’t force other countries to recognise your decisions any more if you’re not part of the EU. Equally it would be rather preposterous to leave the EU and still give full legal recognition to thousands of foreign decision-making bodies.”