The day after the EU (Withdrawal) Bill is due to receive its second reading in the House of Commons and shortly before the Bill enters its committee stage for detailed consideration, this major one-day public event brings together leading parliamentarians and legal and constitutional specialists from across the UK to discuss the critical issues raised by the Bill and its prospects in the UK’s parliaments and assemblies.

The event will feature a keynote address from a representative of the Department for Exiting the European Union; a panel of leading parliamentarians from Westminster and the devolved legislatures; and expert panels on delegated powers, rights and enforcement, and devolution issues.

Programme

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 Welcome and introduction

Professor Anand Menon, Director, ESRC UK in a Changing Europe

9.35 The EU (Withdrawal) Bill: Overview

The Government’s approach

  • Daniel Denman, Director, Legal Advisors, Department for Exiting the EU

Legislating for Brexit: the issues

  • Professor Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Anniversary Chair in Law, Queen Mary University of London

10.45 Delegated Powers

  • Chair: Dr Ruth Fox, Director and Head of Research, Hansard Society
  • Michael P. Clancy OBE, Director, Law Reform, Law Society of Scotland
  • Professor Mark Elliott, Professor of Public Law, University of Cambridge; Legal Adviser, House of Lords Constitution Committee
  • Lord Lisvane, Member, House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee; former Clerk of the House of Commons

12.00 Lunch

13.00 Rights and Enforcement

  • Chair: Marie Demetriou QC, Brick Court Chambers
  • Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of European Union Law, Cambridge University, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
  • Martha Spurrier, Director, Liberty

14.00 Devolution

  • Chair: Professor Dan Wincott, Professor of Law and Society, Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff University
  • Professor Colin Harvey, Professor of Human Rights Law, Queen’s University Belfast, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
  • Dr Jo Hunt, Reader in Law, Cardiff University, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
  • Professor Stephen Tierney, Professor of Constitutional Theory, Edinburgh University, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe; Legal Adviser, House of Lords Constitution Committee

15.15 Tea

15.30 Parliamentary Perspectives

  • Chair: Professor Richard Rawlings, Professor of Public Law, University College London, and Honorary Distinguished Professor, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University

A panel (subject to parliamentary business) including:

  • Hilary Benn MP, Chair, House of Commons Committee on Exiting the EU (Labour)
  • Sir Bill Cash MP, previous Chair, House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee (Conservative)
  • Joanna Cherry QC MP, Member, House of Commons Committee on Exiting the EU (SNP)
  • Dr Stephen Farry MLA, Deputy Leader and Brexit spokesman, Alliance Party
  • Eluned Morgan AM, Baroness Morgan of Ely, Member, National Assembly for Wales External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee (Labour)

The event is funded by the ESRC UK in a Changing Europe initiative, and co-convened by Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre and the Hansard Society.