Kent Law Clinic Director Professor John Fitzpatrick offered an insight into the legal consequences of a UK exit from the European Union in a live interview on BBC Radio Kent last night.
Drivetime presenter Dominic King began by asking Professor Fitzpatrick to explain how laws are currently made and to offer an analysis of what advantages there might be in having recourse to both the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Professor Fitzpatrick was also quizzed on the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and on the implications there might be for the Human Rights Act, and the law-making process more generally, if the UK comes out of the EU. Professor Fitzpatrick made the point that the UK can choose to remain in the ECHR, even if it leaves the EU, but that there are some who are arguing to leave both.
During the interview Professor Fitzpatrick also explained how a number of EU laws have already been integrated into the UK’s domestic legal system (such as the Working Time Directive) and that it would be up to the government to decide whether such laws were maintained in the event of a UK exit from the EU.
Listen again online (1:09:45 mins into the programme).
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