Between Theory and Praxis? the Global Reach of EU LAW and Brexit

The Global Reach of EU law is charted in literature over several decades and is distinctively developed often by US and Swiss-based authors as much as from EU-based authors/ scholars across a range of disciplines rendering it a rich field of global thought. The laws, rules and standards governing the single market constitute homogenous forms of regulation for a vast range of subject areas governing a bloc of half a billion consumers and traders are sufficiently desirable that many third countries adopt them as takers; alternatively, traders, businesses, companies, associations, countries receive them or are subjected to them, compelled to or otherwise. Thus, the global reach of EU law encompasses the perceived ‘spillover’ effect of good EU regulatory standards on US rules in the realm of, inter alia, genetically modified foods, data privacy standards and chemical safety rules (‘The so-called Brussels Effect’); the extent to which EU legal rules are actually transplanted in the US: for example, the transposition of EU environmental standards in California, Boston and Maine (‘From Brussels with Love’), The incorporation of EU vehicle emissions standards into Chinese and Japanese law, EU makeup standards in Malaysia and innovative transfers of policies from the EU to the US in socio-economic fields of law. The paper argues that the UK will inevitably become subject to what is referred to as the Global Reach of EU Law, as it evolves to become a rule-taker. It is argued to set a positive normative agenda for Brexit.