10th March 2021
Another lively Zoom encounter with Greg Hughes this morning opened with the topic of cross border enforcement of driving bans, Seamus Gunn highlighting the difficulties arising and the complex legislation issues that require to be addressed by the UK in the wake of their exit from the EU. He explained the cross-border enforcement directive of 2015, which was initially taken up by 25 out of the 28 member states with Ireland, England and Denmark postponing and that following agreement between Ireland and England in August 2017, the recognition of driving bans which gave effect to the ban following the driver to their own jurisdiction came into force. He said that the issue that now arose was that whether as a result of Brexit, the mutual recognition remained in force. The EU directive was pre 2016 when Brexit was voted on in the UK. He was of the view that it would take a UK act of parliament to rescind the recognition but the difficulty that arose in practical terms was whether an EU Directive had to be observed in the meantime. He said that this was part of the unravelling and that while it may be played out in the courts, it would be up to the UK to bring in appropriate Legislation under a raft of headings to give effect to the exit. He explained how prior to Brexit, orders would have been enforceable across the EU. He made the point that the complexities have not been addressed and that while there is an agreement in place, the fleshing out of the nuts and bolts of the Legislation that is required to give effect to it has yet to follow, a topic which no doubt will have to be revisited in the future.
The Q & A session varied from Testamentary matters to Medical negligence to Statute of Limitation periods, being wide and varied.
Listen to the full interview below.