Rights and remedies at risk: Implications of the Brexit process on the future of rights in the UK

This article provides a taxonomy of the impact of the Brexit on human rights, categorised by the degree of risk posed by the process of separation and legal reform during and following withdrawal from the European Union. First providing an overview of the envisioned Brexit legal process, it outlines what will be lost, critically at risk, vulnerable to repeal, and at low risk of removal. It considers the loss of effective remedies; the (avoidable) uncertainty of EU and UK citizens’ rights; the exclusion of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights from incorporation as retained EU law; the implications of extensive delegated powers to amend retained EU law; and the systematic removal of executive and state accountability mechanisms under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. It assesses the potential impact of removing the foundation of equality, worker and consumer rights, and the acute vulnerability of ‘new’ rights. It argues that even where protections are not lost, they are critically at risk or significantly and substantially weakened. It questions whether common law and domestic remedies could fill the gap left in rights protection, exploring the complexities and contradictions arising from the new constitutional (un)settlement of powers. By categorising the impact of the Brexit process on rights by risk, this Article establishes the acute vulnerability of the UK’s framework of rights protection during and after the Brexit Process