No matter where one stands on the issue, the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union
on the 31 January 2020 is a profoundly important moment.
There's no doubt that it will fundamentally transform both Britain and Europe.
By leaving the EU, the UK is turning its back on almost 50 years of European integration
and abandoning its formal political and economic ties to 27 other European countries.
Indeed, so close are the bonds with the EU that one could even consider it to be tantamount
to a territory leaving a country.
In this video, I'm going to try to answer the question: Is Brexit a form of secession?
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Hello. My name is James Ker-Lindsay.
Welcome to 'Independent Thinking'.
A channel dedicated to international relations, independence and the origins of countries.
Britain's departure from the European Union brings to an end almost half a century of membership.
On 1 January in 1973, the United Kingdom, along with Denmark and Ireland, became the first new countries
to join what was then known as the European Economic Community.
From the start, however, the United Kingdom was seen as an awkward and uncomfortable member of the body.
Almost as soon as as it joined, it began trying to renegotiate the terms of its membership
- a pattern that would become all too familiar in the decades that followed.
Meanwhile, Britain also chose to opt out of several of the key flagship European projects,
including the single currency.
Nevertheless, for all its ambivalence about the wider European project, there was a sense that it understood
the value of remaining a member.
However, this all changed in June 2016, when the UK held a referendum on its continued
membership of the EU.
By a narrow margin of 52 to 48 percent, the British electorate voted to leave the EU
- a process more generally known as Brexit.
The decision to leave the European Union certainly came as a shock.
Of course, the reasons for this decision, and whether it will ultimately prove beneficial to the country,
will be debated for many years to come.
However, it soon became clear that the process of picking apart the ties that had been formed
over half a century would not be easy.
Brexit was certainly not like leaving an international organization.
It would be far more complex than that.
Instead, it appeared to have more in common with the way in which a territory breaks away from a country.
In many ways, it seemed to be a form of secession.
So, can we think of it as secession?
Well, formally speaking, secession is considered to be the act of withdrawing from a political body
of some sort - whether that's a country, an organization or some other institution.
From this perspective, Brexit clearly is a case of secession.
However, secession is usually understood as the decision by a territory to break away from a state
and either become independent or join with another country.
Based on this alternative reading of secession, the question becomes a little more complex.
From a strictly legalistic perspective, the European Union is not a state.
To be sure, it has a number of state like features.
Broadly speaking, one can think of it as having a defined territory, a settled population, governance
and the ability to enter into international relations - the traditional markings of statehood.
It also has many of the features of a state, such as a parliament and a bureaucracy.
Moreover, under the terms of the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force in 2009, the EU can even have a
formal and distinct legal personality on the international stage - thereby allowing it to sign treaties
or join international organizations.
However, for all this, it can't be regarded as a state in any formal or traditional sense.
For a start, it doesn't have a centralized power of a state to enforce its decisions over its territory.
It has no army. Nor does it have a head of state.
Overall, it is certainly more than an organization.
However, it can't be viewed as a state.
Instead, it's perhaps better thought of as a political system for cooperation or even as a political community.
More to the point, it's worth emphasizing that the European Union is in fact still
composed of independent sovereign states.
While member states have chosen to pool their sovereignty in a number of different ways,
they all remain discrete actors in international politics.
Each of them still retains its own separate seat at the United Nations.
They also retain their places as separate members of other international organizations, such as NATO.
On top of this, each member also retains its own distinct form of national government and political identity.
Each maintains its own national legislative institutions and processes
as well as its own legal and judicial system.
Lastly, whereas there's a general prohibition on territories breaking away from a country
without permission - otherwise known as unilateral secession - no such prohibition exists in this case.
The United Kingdom was always perfectly at liberty to leave the European Union, even without
a formal agreement - although the consequences of doing so would have been extremely harmful
in terms of its relationship with the Union.
Moreover, the effects on the wider international stage would not mirror those faced by a territory trying
to unilaterally secede from a state.
Britain would still enjoy full international recognition, even by its former partners in the EU.
In other words, Britain's sovereignty and independence as an actor on the international stage
always remained intact, and would have remained so had it chosen to leave unilaterally.
However, in other ways, Brexit nevertheless has a lot in common with secession.
In any case of consensual secession, there's a complex process of negotiation.
This usually focuses on two key areas: the immediate terms of the formal separation
and the nature of the relationship thereafter.
This often requires sorting out a myriad of issues, ranging from dividing assets
through to determining the status of one another's citizens.
Both these features have clearly been present with Brexit.
The Withdrawal Agreement, the basic text defining Britain's departure from the European Union,
had to address a number of questions.
For instance, it had to cover issues such as pension rights for British staff working EU institutions
and the return of Britain's contributions to EU bodies,
such as the return of the UK's share capital in the European Investment Bank.
In addition, it set out the rights of British citizens living and working in the EU,
and EU citizens living and working in the UK.
It also covered issues such as intellectual property, data protection, and judicial cooperation
in civil and criminal matters.
Lastly, it set out the terms of a transition or implementation period, which will cover the UK
as it moved from leaving the EU through to establishing a new relationship.
These are all the sorts of issues one would expect to see covered in a process of state secession.
In addition to the Withdrawal Agreement, the two sides also signed a Political Declaration.
This set out some of the guiding principles for the future relationship.
However, like any other process of secession, defining the terms of the future relationship,
as well as sorting out all the loose ends of the exit process, could well take many years.
So, is Brexit a case of secession?
Ultimately, it depends on how you look at it.
From a purely definitional perspective, it is certainly a case of secession.
The United Kingdom is withdrawing from the European Union.
However, when considering in terms of the act of a territory leaving a state,
the situation is little more complicated.
Although the EU can't be considered as a country, and its members have always remained sovereign states
in their own rights, it has many state-like features.
Moreover, the range of issues that needs to be considered, such as working out the rights of citizens
and financial matters, closely parallels many of the issues that one would expect to see
in a formal and traditional process of secession.
I hope you found this video useful. If so, I have posted some other videos that you might find interesting.
And don't forget to subscribe to get new videos every Friday.
And do let me know in the comments section if you have any questions,
or if there are any other topics you'd like to see me cover.
Thanks a lot for watching and see you again next time.
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