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The United Kingdom: Suspension of the UK accession to the HCCH Choice of Court Convention and of the UK ratification to the HCCH Child Support Convention from 1 April 2019 until 13 April 2019 or until 23 May 2019
The UK has suspended its accession to the HCCH Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements (Choice of Court Convention) and its ratification to the HCCH Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (Child Support Convention) until 13 April 2019 or 23 May 2019 as the case may be in accordance with the European Council Decision. This takes effect as of 1 April 2019 (the scheduled date of their entry into force).
In the meantime, and as a Member State of the European Union, European Union law, including the above-mentioned HCCH Conventions, will remain applicable to and in the United Kingdom.
Moreover, the UK adds with regard to the Choice of Court Convention: “As stated in the Note Verbale, in the event that the Withdrawal Agreement is signed, ratified and approved by the United Kingdom and the European Union, the United Kingdom will withdraw the Instrument of Accession which it deposited on 28 December 2018.”
And with respect to the Child Support Convention: “As stated in the Note Verbale, in the event that the Withdrawal Agreement is signed, ratified and approved by the United Kingdom and the European Union, the United Kingdom will withdraw the Instrument of Ratification which it deposited on 28 December 2018.”
Please note that a different set of declarations would apply if the UK instruments do enter into force. See here.
For more information, see here for the Choice of Court Convention and here for the Child Support Convention (Depositary’s website in both French and English).
Preparing for Brexit, part 2
The European Commission has just released some new factsheets and Q&A documents regarding the consequences of a no-deal Brexit here. Inter alia, the information given concerns the rights of consumers (including the applicable law and the enforcement of judgments), of EU citizens living in the UK, of UK citizens living in the EU, and the position of EU students enrolled at UK universities. However, the date for a hard Brexit mentioned in the documents is still 29 March 2019, which is in any event no longer accurate after last week’s summit (see our previous post here).
Preparing for Brexit
At the moment this note is written, it is unclear whether there will be another vote in the House of Commons concerning Theresa May’s deal with the EU-27 at all (see here for the latest developments). Already on 18 January 2019, the European Commission recognized that “[i]n view of the uncertainties surrounding the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement, all interested parties are reminded of legal repercussions which need to be considered when the United Kingdom becomes a third country”. In order to clarify matters, the Commission has published a so-called Preparedness Notice which is meant to give guidance to stakeholders with regard to the implications of a no-deal Brexit in the field of judicial cooperation and private international law. The full text of this notice is available here.