Brexit, EU and Finland
The University of Turku Faculty of Law organized a seminar on Brexit, and on its lessons and impact for the EU and Finland on 4 October 2016.
The event began with a lecture by Paul Craig, Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford and a fellow of St. John’s College. Professor Craig’s wide ranging lecture, titled Brexit: Exit in Search of a Negotiating Strategy, mapped in particular the scenarios for a hard Brexit and a soft Brexit, and analysed their legal validity, empirical likelihood, and economic and political impact. A question and answer session followed.
The seminar continued with four further papers. Teija Tiilikainen, Director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, considered the impact of Brexit on the EU – will integration deepen, or is there a likelihood of disintegration? Jukka Snell, Professor at the University of Turku and Swansea University, compared the Brexit referendum with earlier national EU referenda and analysed the lessons that emerge. Professor Volker Röben of Swansea University examined the impact of international law on the withdrawal of a Member State from the EU, setting out the ways in which the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of the Treaties can serve to fill the gaps left by the EU Treaties. Finally, Dr Janne Salminen of the University of Turku assessed the legality of a hypothetical EU referendum and exit under the Finnish constitution.
The event was attended by academics, attorneys, government lawyers, judges, staff of the European Chemicals Agency, as well as students. It was marked by a lively debate of the many issues involved.
Text: Jukka Snell
Photos: Tarja Linden