Asia House Brexit Series: Former President of EFTA Court

Professor Dr Carl Baudenbacher, Former President of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court (2003-2018), will be giving a private briefing at Asia House on Wednesday 17 January. He will speak on the possible role that the EFTA Court could play for the UK post-Brexit, in view of the legal conundrums presented by the end of the supremacy of EU law and jurisdictional role of the European Court of Justice.

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is the intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The EFTA court is the equivalent of the ECJ for these countries, who are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) but not members of the EU. Its three judges oversee the application of EEA law (a copy of many EU laws) in those countries.

On a previous visit to the UK in September, Professor Baudenbacher led the drive to persuade the UK government to resolve Brexit by joining EFTA, the so-called Norway model. He has also held talks with Japanese government officials in Tokyo to discuss how EFTA might help Japanese industry in the Brexit outcomes.

The UK has said it would not join a court that worked in parallel with ECJ rulings and wants to establish a UK arbitration court that takes into account ECJ jurisprudence. But to agree on and establish a totally new dispute mechanism or court will be timely and difficult.

Professor Baudenbacher has been the Liechtenstein Judge of the EFTA Court since 1995 and was it’s President for fifteen years. He is a renowned expert in the fields of commercial, economic and competition law and is also the Director of the Competence Center for European and International Law at the University of St Gallen HSG.

This event is taking place as part of the Asia House Brexit Series.

This briefing is for Asia House corporate members only.

To register to attend, please contact Aini Abdullah in the Business & Policy Team at aini.abdullah@asiahouse.co.uk.