# UK Breaks the law



## Purple (21 Sep 2020)

If the UK breaks international law, and possibly breaks the Good friday Agreement, what international body will adjudicate on the matter?


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## NoRegretsCoyote (21 Sep 2020)

International law is more a set of norms that countries are supposed to abide by.

In most cases there is no way of enforcing it short of going to war.


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## Drakon (21 Sep 2020)

I don’t see what the uproar is about. Didn’t Tony Blair break international law in 2003?

And in that case, it was on a false premise.


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## Purple (22 Sep 2020)

The EU breaks the law too when it suits them but this is of a greater magnitude.


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## Zebedee (22 Sep 2020)

The reality is that the only thing the EU can do is to is to walk away from any trade agreement or threaten some retaliation in some way. Agreements can only be enforced through economic/military power. I can’t see the EU invading the U.K.  so an economic reaction is most likely. (Similarly the U.K. hasn’t invaded Hong Kong to regain it from China - although I’m sure there are a few there who long for the good old days).


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## WolfeTone (24 Sep 2020)

The WTO adjudicates if a complaint is lodged by a country. This can take some years depending on the matters involved. It recently found against the US and its tariffs imposed on China.
It do not think it has any authority to penalise though as far as I'm aware. Only it gives aggrieved countries some justification to break their own rules against the offending country. And if the aggrieved country has allies, multilateral agreements can be created to impose harsher trade conditions on the offending country.
The problem is that with countries like the US, who is going to stand up against them when they break the rules?

The UK / EU is different. I get a sense that any type of trade war would be mutually self-destructive. More likely, future trade deals with third parties would be used as leverage to try resolve existing disputes.


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## newirishman (24 Sep 2020)

Purple said:


> The EU breaks the law too when it suits them but this is of a greater magnitude.


Like for example when?


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## Purple (25 Sep 2020)

newirishman said:


> Like for example when?


Well both Germany and France broke the Growth and Stability Pack almost straight away and the EU totally ignored it. The EU also ignored rulings from the WTO on GM crops.


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## tallpaul (25 Sep 2020)

WTO ruling do not have superiority on EU law??


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## tallpaul (25 Sep 2020)

Indeed from here: , the ECJ has consistently ruled to ignore WTO findings.

"To the disappointment of litigants and scholars alike,12 the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest court in the European Union on matters of EU law, has continually denied review of the legality of EU law on the basis of WTO law and has correspondingly denied damages to private enti- ties even when the EU’s behavior has been explicitly declared inconsistent with WTO obligations by the DSB".


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## Leo (25 Sep 2020)

tallpaul said:


> WTO ruling do not have superiority on EU law??



That the UK's argument, their legislation trumps all else.


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## Purple (25 Sep 2020)

tallpaul said:


> WTO ruling do not have superiority on EU law??


WTO Ruling is that the EU has broken an agreement that it signed up to by putting laws or rules in place which are at odds with that previous WTO agreement.


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## WolfeTone (20 Oct 2020)

Speaking of UK breaking the law. Has anyone seen Pritti Patels  Covert Human Intelligence (Criminal Conduct) Bill?  

The Bill seeks to amend the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to permit the carrying out of certain criminal acts by authorities in the United Kingdom 

Where is the Britain heading?


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## WolfeTone (28 Jan 2021)

UK Government lawyer tells court MI5 officers could authorise murder


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