Global Britain Editors’ Introduction

In this issue, we begin to address the much-vaunted vision of ‘Global Britain’ focusing in particular on Britain’s mission as the champion of global free trade. What does it mean? What are its implications? What kind of country will emerge from the postBrexit chaos? How will it affect our politics? How will it affect our legal systems? How will it affect our economy? How will it affect our prosperity and our lifestyles? These are big questions which will no doubt take generations before we can begin to provide conclusive and meaningful answers. But the conditions from which these answers will emerge are being created now, and need better to be understood. Here we aim modestly to assess the emerging legal foundations from which the answers to these questions will emerge. The eight articles in this special issue address various trade policy aspects of the post-Brexit landscape, beginning with a lucid overview by Filippo Fontanelli. The latter sets the scene, by examining the transformation of UK-related trade law from the EU internal market to the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, as well as novel or rolled-over trade deals with third parties. Thereafter different contributions assess the impact of Global Britain on different topics or subject-matters. Fiona Smith explores the emerging vision for agri-food trade within the broader context of Global Britain and its impact on post-Brexit Britain. This is followed by a very ambitious paper in which Lorenzo Cotula assesses the implications of Brexit for the UK’s relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, in the process highlighting the significance of long histories of slavery, colonialism and empire. Cotula deals critically with the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) concluded between the UK and ACP countries, and examines how relations with these countries could be reconceived.