The UK government faces a major challenge in formulating a clear plan for Brexit. Its current position is that departing the EU necessarily entails leaving the European Economic Area and customs union. The Prime Minster has said that ‘no deal’ is better than a ‘bad deal’. Thus it is possible that at the end of March 2019, the UK will fall back on WTO rules. While the government may have worked out the legal and institutional implications of this scenario, it has not shared this information with the public. By its own admission, the government has not undertaken any economic analysis of the possible effects of Brexit, beyond the work carried out by the Treasury before the referendum of June 2016. In these circumstances, there is an urgent need for informed public debate on the consequences of Brexit. On 30 March 2017 the Cambridge Public Policy Strategic Research Initiative and Centre for Business Research (CBR) will be holding a Workshop to explore the legal and economic context of the momentous decision to trigger Article 50. We will be reporting the state of the art on legal issues which include the WTO option, migration, citizen’s rights, the UK’s ‘exit bill’, free movement, taxation, social policy, and the legal mechanics of leaving, including the proposed ‘Great Repeal Act’. We will also be presenting the latest results from the CBR’s economic forecasting model, UKMOD, which has earned a reputation for accuracy and even-handedness in its analysis of the effects of Brexit.

Keynote speaker
James Wolffe QC, Lord Advocate for Scotland

Legal Issues:
Migration: Catherine Barnard
The WTO Option: Lorand Bartels
Sector-specific regulation: John Bell
Social and Economic Policy: Simon Deakin
Taxation: Julian Ghosh QC
The Great Repeal Act: David Howarth
EU Citizens’ Rights: Kirsty Hughes
Free Movement: Martin Steinfeld
The UK’s ‘Exit Bill’: Michael Waibel

Economic Forecast
Economic Scenarios Post-Brexit: Graham Gudgin, Ken Coutts and Neil Gibson

Registration
Registration is free but places are limited. To reserve a place please email Rachel Wagstaff (r.wagstaff@cbr.cam.ac.uk).

Location
The Theatre, Peterhouse, Cambridge CB2 1RD
http://www.pet.cam.ac.uk

We are grateful for the support of the University of Cambridge Impact Acceleration Account.