CELS Lunchtime Seminar: Brexit and Agriculture: Implementing a New Legal Framework for a New Agricultural Policy

Professor Michael Cardwell (Leeds University) will give a CELS lunchtime seminar - "Brexit and Agriculture: Implementing a New Legal Framework for a New Agricultural Policy".

There is scope for the effect of Brexit to have particular resonance in the agricultural sector which has long been comprehensively regulated at EU level and which still accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the EU budget.  The paper will commence with an overview of the structure of the sector in the United Kingdom, with emphasis on the important role played by the devolved administrations.  Against this background, attention will be directed to differing post-Brexit visions of farming which are currently being advanced, such as the promotion of a ‘production agriculture’ open to world markets or the unlocking of premium values through higher standards of environmental protection and animal welfare.  Potential issues for any new domestic legal framework to govern agriculture will then be considered with specific reference to:

•     the future of financial or other support for farmers;
•     the rural environment;
•     farm animal welfare; and
•     inputs for production and biotechnology.

In addition, there will be discussion of the overarching effect of World Trade Organization rules on agriculture, not only in respect of the treatment of existing EU commitments post-Brexit, but also in respect of the parameters that such rules will impose upon both the architecture and detail of United Kingdom regulation.

The talk will take place at 1:05pm – 1:55pm in lecture room B16, Faculty of Law.
A sandwich lunch is provided at 12:45pm.
There is no charge for lunch or to attend the seminar.

Enquiries to: cels@law.cam.ac.uk