Scotland wants more powers, EU access

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reiterated that the nation wants to remain within the European Union after a potential Brexit and that it will push for more powers to protect its interests, as Britain’s giant legal services sector fears its could lose a significant part of the disputes markets, prompting lawyers to register in Ireland.

In a paper published on Tuesday, Sturgeon outlined a wish list of Scottish demands following the Brexit vote in June in which Scotland voted to stay, the news portal Euractiv reported.

Top of the list is that the whole country should remain in the EU and that if the UK does leave, then Scotland should remain in the single market.

“We are determined to maintain Scotland’s current position in the European single market,” Sturgeon said in Scotland’s Place in Europe.

“There has to be a way to effectively square the circle (between the two results). Will this be easy? No… but I believe this is achievable,” she told a news conference.

“First and foremost, this is about us trying to convince the UK that these are proposals worthy of being considered. Our practical solutions are reasonable and in the best interests of Scotland, in a context that will be complex and unprecedented whatever the ultimate outcome.”

Sturgeon said the option of independence, which Scots rejected in a referendum in 2014, had to be kept available and that she wanted to remain a full member of the EU.

“The option of independence must remain on the table,” Sturgeon said. “Brexit is a problem not of Scotland’s making.”

Scotland, she said, needed a fundamental review of its devolution settlement and that powers over immigration were vital to protect its interests.

Scotland wants to control its own migration shore up its ageing population and its more populated rural territory.

But while allowing free migration may be a priority for Scotland, curbing it has been set as a priority by UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

In London, May’s spokesperson said the prime minister will carefully consider the Scottish proposals.

But he added: “Our position is there shouldn’t be a second (independence) referendum. There was a referendum, it was only two years ago, the result was very decisive (and) both parties agreed to abide by the result.”

Meanwhile, a lobby group warned that Britain should take immediate action to safeguard the pre-eminent international role its courts and legal services play in resolving disputes over commercial contracts once the UK leaves the EU.

The UK’s legal services sector is second in size only to the United States and Britain has become the world’s top centre for dispute resolution due to the use of English law in commercial contracts.

The Brexit deicision, however, could make the choice of English courts less attractive to international businesses, the report from TheCityUK, which lobbies on behalf of UK-based financial and related professional services firms, said.

The choice of English law for a contract and the choice of the English courts as the dispute resolution forum should be considered as a package, as typically the same law and jurisdiction is chosen, it said.

“We recommend that the government – and the devolved administrations – should make clear they will apply the rules set out in Rome I and Rome II, including choice of law for non-contractual obligations, by converting them into domestic law,” the report said.

“This can and should be done now, unilaterally and without affecting the negotiations to exit the EU.”

Some European academics have already questioned the validity of making London the place of dispute resolution for new contracts since the Brexit vote. Countries like Singapore also want to become bigger centres for dispute resolution, while Cyprus and Malta, both EU members that use English law, hope to bank on new businesses after service company in the UK ponder leaving the country.

Failure to underpin UK decisions for use in contracts across the EU after Brexit would undermine UK legal policy to

sparsely services in the wider global market, the report said.

More than a fifth of all practising solicitors in Britain work in financial services-related functions, and the UK legal sector’s trade surplus has nearly doubled over the past decade to GBP 3.4 bln.

Losing access to the EU’s single market would pose a high risk of causing considerable losses in terms of finances and reputation to the legal services sector over the long term, the report said.

“The best Brexit deal will be one which is mutually beneficial to the UK, the EU and globally and which allows for a clear and predictable shift from current business conditions to whatever new arrangement is agreed,” TheCityUK’s Chief Executive, Miles Celic, said in a statement. This follows news of a 275% increase in UK lawyers registering in Ireland this year after the Brexit vote, according to the Law Society of Ireland said.

A “tsunami” of solicitors from England and Wales will see 810 added to the roll in Ireland by the end of 2016, out of a total 1,347 new registrations since the start of the year, it said.