The implications of the UK's departure from the EU in the family law context, from both domestic and the international perspectives cannot be underestimated. A conference on the impact of Brexit on family law, led by the International Academy of Family Lawyers in conjunction with the Family Law Bar Association of England and Wales and Resolution, was held on 26 June 2017 in London.
The conference provided essential training for all family lawyers and considered all of the key the family law implications of the UK Referendum one year on. Scherpe, as one of the two invited academic speakers, delivered a lecture entitled ‘Brexit – divorced but still family’. He argued in his paper that idea that there is ‘EU Family Law’ is misconceived as the EU has no competence to legislate on substantial family law. However, there is growing body of European Family Law, which is both institutional and organic in nature. As such, it is mostly detached from the EU, and therefore the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom can and will still be included in this growing body of law even after Brexit (see further Scherpe (ed.), European Family Law, 4 vols, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016).
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