THE Crown Dependencies must use their constitutional autonomy to act in their own best interests in the post-Brexit landscape, according to a lawyer who has previously advised the Jersey government on its legal and economic relations with the European Union.
Writing for an international finance website, Professor Alastair Sutton says that Brexit presents the Crown Dependencies with an opportunity in the context of doubts about whether the interests of the UK government always coincide with those of the islands.
Professor Sutton refers specifically to the UK government’s representation of the islands within the EU when it was a member, and to the current ‘acrimony in the UK’s relations with the EU (especially France) [which] cannot be in the best interests of the dependencies’.
He writes: ‘During the UK’s EU membership, it was not immediately obvious that the islands’ interests in the field of direct tax were always defended by the UK in the Council of Ministers. Now, one year after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, there is no doubt that… the onus on individual jurisdictions to promote and defend their identity and reputation in their external relations will be greater than ever’.
Professor Sutton, a former EU official as well as legal practitioner immersed in EU law for almost 40 years, argues that it is not clear that Brexit has yet had an adverse effect on financial or related services within the UK’s territories, with the exception of Gibraltar. But he says that, while the EU will continue to deal formally with the UK’s territories through the Westminster government, Brexit means that the Crown Dependencies have the opportunity to exercise a degree of choice over their direction.
Professor Sutton says while there has been ‘little if any significant change in the political, economic or even legal situation at least of those UK territories which are recognised as “finance centres”, this cannot be said of the UK and City of London’.
‘All UK territories are “autonomous” in the sense that they are not bound, as a matter of law, by legislation adopted in the UK. Territories such as Jersey, Bermuda or Gibraltar are therefore free to determine for themselves the extent to which they follow the UK, EU or their own standards in areas such as insurance and asset management,’ he says.
The professor, writing for the IFC website, notes that while the Crown Dependences are self-governing, the UK bears ultimate responsibility for ensuring their conformity with international law. In a footnote, he refers to the ‘potentially difficult legal situation’ arising from the ‘generally accepted UK constitutional convention that the UK may not impose legislative or executive measures in the islands’.
