In the past forty years, the EU has established a very successful and effective civil judicial cooperation scheme that applies to reduce barriers caused by coexistence of different legal systems to smooth cross-border activities and transactions in the single market. This scheme would cease being effective between the UK and other EU Member States after Brexit. The UK government has proposed that the optimal option is to establish a special partnership with the EU to maintain the existing cooperation after Brexit, which is not ecoed by the EU. This article aims to explore the feasibility of establishing such a future partnership in civil judicial cooperation and to examine the existing models that may be followed by the UK. It suggests that neither the Denmark model nor the Lugano II model would work effectively and recommends a unique ‘UK model’ to establish the future UK–EU civil judicial cooperation partnership.
European Foreign Affairs Review