On 27 June Dr Lorand Bartels joined other experts before the European Scrutiny Committee to consider issues arising in relation to the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the context of the EU exit negotiations.
The experts were:
- Dr Lorand Bartels, Reader in International Law, Cambridge University;
- Professor David Collins, Professor of International Economic Law, City, University of London;
- Dr Katy Hayward, Reader in Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast;
- Shanker Singham, Director of the International Trade and Competition Unit (ITCU) of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
The Committee asked witnesses about a variety of issues relating to the Irish border aspect of the negotiations, including the 'temporary customs arrangement' proposed by the Government, regulatory aspects of the backstop, how maximum facilitation would work at the Irish border, the WTO frontier traffic exception, and legal issues pertaining to the Irish border in a 'no deal' scenario.