Not the Great Repeal Bill…
The Government has published the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. The Explanatory Notes are here. Much of the detail is contained in the Schedules. In a nutshell:
“Repeal of the ECA
1 Repeal of the European Communities Act 1972
The European Communities Act 1972 is repealed on exit day.
Retention of existing EU law
2 Saving for EU-derived domestic legislation
EU-derived domestic legislation, as it has effect in domestic law immediately before exit day, continues to have effect in domestic law on and after exit day.
[…]
5 Exceptions to savings and incorporation
(1) The principle of the supremacy of EU law does not apply to any enactment or rule of law passed or made on or after exit day.
(2) Accordingly, the principle of the supremacy of EU law continues to apply on
or after exit day so far as relevant to the interpretation, disapplication or quashing of any enactment or rule of law passed or made before exit day.
(3) Subsection (1) does not prevent the principle of the supremacy of EU law from applying to a modification made on or after exit day of any enactment or rule of law passed or made before exit day if the application of the principle is consistent with the intention of the modification.
(4) The Charter of Fundamental Rights is not part of domestic law on or after exit day.
(5) Subsection (4) does not affect the retention in domestic law on or after exit day
in accordance with this Act of any fundamental rights or principles which exist irrespective of the Charter (and references to the Charter in any case law are, so far as necessary for this purpose, to be read as if they were references to any corresponding retained fundamental rights or principles)…”
The Bill does not detail policies line-by-line but transfers all regulations into domestic law and provides the UK with two years after Brexit to correct any “deficiencies” arising from the transfer. It is not expected to be debated until after Parliament has returned from the Summer Adjounrment.
When I was a schoolboy, we had a plan to attach two canoes together, to make a catamaran. A metaphor for the approach the government is taking strikes me as detaching two attached canoes, without necessarily paddling off in a completely different direction immediately from the other canoe.
What happens if a cause of action accrues after exit day, or accrues before exit day but the action is not brought until after exit day, and, but for Brexit, the domestic court would have made a reference to the ECJ, about the interpretation of a British statute enacted before exit day? I think that is going to be a sticking point.