Richard Gordon QC, of Brick Court Chambers, described the Island’s constitutional relationship with the UK as ‘held together by string’ and suggested that if the 27 EU member states started to exert pressure, the UK could ‘make use of the Crown Dependencies as a lever’.
Mr Gordon – who recently co-published a paper on the legislative process of preparing for Brexit – was recently in the Island to take part in a panel discussion during a conference organised by the Jersey branch of ICSA the Governance Institute.
He said: ‘When the UK goes into negotiations with the 27 other states, they will not be thinking of Jersey, or Gibraltar, or Scotland. They will want to say to the UK electorate, look what we have got.
‘There is a conflict of interest between the UK and Jersey.’
He said that recent tensions in Gibraltar, as an Overseas Territory of the UK, should send a ‘frisson of terror’ in terms of Jersey’s position.
In constitutional terms, he stressed, Jersey was not part of the UK, had not been able to vote in the Brexit referendum and the UK Parliament had no jurisdiction over the Island. ‘Jersey has no status, so what good are the Prime Minister’s assurances?’ the lawyer questioned.
‘What interest has the UK got in protecting Jersey’s best interests?’
Panel member Mike Jones, director of policy at the Jersey Financial Services Commission, said that although Brexit was affecting all decisions relating to market access, the outcome could provide better access to the UK and international markets in the longer term.
Mr Jones said that the Island authorities were in fact providing the UK government with practical help, in that the Island had experience of being a ‘third country’.
Fellow panel member Thomas Cowsill, head of technical at Jersey Finance, said the Island already provided services to countries outside of the EU, particularly in the Middle East and Asia. ‘The government of Jersey is not asking the UK for much, just the status quo on trade in goods,’ said Mr Cowsill. ‘Personally I can’t see any conflicts of interest.’
Mr Gordon replied that although he was not saying there were grounds for pessimism, if conflicts did arise then there was ‘precious little’ that the Island could do about it.
‘The UK’s relationship with Jersey is held together by string. There are no constitutional documents stating what part each plays, unlike Scotland, which has good framework agreements.
‘I think it might work quite well in reality, but if the 27 member states want to exert pressure, they might use the Crown Dependencies as a lever,’ he said.
