Brexit: From the Outside Looking In

After a brief comparative examination of the structural reasons behind Brexit, the talk will turn to some of the constitutional questions surrounding secession, including from the perspective of European Union law. In particular, the talk will address use of the Royal Prerogative to give notice to the European Council under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, the key issue that will be heard by the UK Supreme Court in December.

Daniel Halberstam, is the Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law and Director of the European Legal Studies Program at the University of Michigan Law School, where he teaches European Union Law, U.S. constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, and global governance. An expert on constitutional law and federalism, and one of the principal architects of the theory of constitutional pluralism, Professor Halberstam writes more broadly on comparative public law and legal theory. Currently the Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at Michigan, Halberstam also was professor in the European Law Department at the College of Europe (Bruges) for the past decade, and gave the General Course on the European Union at the European University Institute, Florence. He was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) in Berlin, and then served on that Institute's academic advisory board. He earned his BA summa cum laude in mathematics from Columbia University, and a JD from Yale Law School. Halberstam served as judicial clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and judicial fellow for Judge Peter Jann at the European Court of Justice, and he now regularly facilitates the official meetings of the two courts. He joined the Michigan Law faculty from the Clinton Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, in 1999.

The meeting will be held in the Lower Lecture Room, Garden Building, Lincoln College. A sandwich lunch will be available from 12.30.