UK and France: Friends or Foes? (Trans) cultural and legal unions and disunions

Geraldine Elizabeth Gadbin-George Gibson-Morgan

Description

At a time of major changes in the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent in France, induced by the proposed Brexit process, this collective work – composed of thirteen chapters from highly experienced academics and specialist professionals from both sides of the Channel – examines their consequences on the French and British relationship in a range of institutional, political, legal, economic, cultural but also strategic and defence-related fields with an emphasis on comparative and/or European points of view.
The two editors are respectively Associate Professors at Panthéon-Assas and Tours universities. Geraldine Gadbin-George is an English solicitor, a former avocat at the Paris bar and a former French judge. Elizabeth Gibson-Morgan is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London in the Department of Contemporary History.

Sujets

• Géopolitique
• Géographie humaine
• Politique

Informations

• Publié par: Éditions Le Manuscrit
• Date de parution: 17 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782304047813
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Geraldine Gadbin-George & Elizabeth Gibson-Morgan
UK and France: Friends or Foes?
(Trans)cultural and legal unions and disunions
Auctoritas
é ditions Le Manuscrit, Paris
ISBN 9782304047813
© Juillet 2019


Dans la même collection
L’Europe en pièces Carine Berbéri et Alexis Chommeloux, 2017
Dire et faire en révolution Jean-Jacques Tatin-Gourier et Lhoussain Bouddouh, 2016
Federalismo, autonomía y secesión en el debate territorial espanol Jorge Cagiao y Conde et Vianney Martin (dir.), 2015
La notion d’autorité en droit Jorge Cagiao y Conde (dir.), 2014


Collection Auctoritas edited by Jorge Cagiao y Conde
Auctoritas non veritas facit legem. Such is Thomas Hobbes’ well-known definition of law in his Leviathan. What transpires here is a realistic conception of law in which law and politics share a common dimension and are two spheres that should not be dissociated.
Auctoritas is a collection that sets out to open up fields of reflection and research with regard to the major legal and political issues pertaining to our societies, issues that will need to be examined in the light of their history, philosophical foundation, and cultural and discursive tradition.
The collection aims to publish, in English and other languages, the works of researchers specialising in law, political science, history, philosophy and sociology. The editors will request contributors to attempt to further our understanding of issues specific to contemporary democracies in the light of the profound transformations which have affected law and politics as well as the sciences that include them within their field of research.


Scientific Committee
Xavier Arbós Marín - Université de Barcelone
Alexis Chommeloux - Université de Tours
Gennaro Ferraiuolo - Université de Naples
Alain-G. Gagnon - Université du Québec à Montréal
Dimitrios Karmis - Université d’Ottawa
Eric Millard - Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre
Christophe Parent - Université de Poitiers
Javier Pérez Royo - Université de Séville


Introduction
On 24 March 1998, Tony Blair the Leader of New Labour and British prime minister was invited for the first time ever in French history to deliver a speech before the French National Assembly by its Speaker – now President of the Constitutional Council – Laurent Fabius. It was also unprecedented in the sense that never had such a pro-Europe speech been heard from a British Prime minister. He had won the May 1997 General Election on a platform of ambitious reforms for the United Kingdom and for Europe including the British, much delayed adoption of the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty. Blair’s 1998 Paris speech was both a warming against isolationism and a call for change. He held that Great Britain’s future lay in being a “full-fledged partner of Europe” and pleaded for pragmatic “closer cooperation”, “convergence”, “rapprochement” between the United Kingdom and France while mentioning British people’s anxieties in terms of national identity and national interest. Thus, his speech reflected the traditional ambiguity in the relationship between the United Kingdom and Europe. This ambivalence is also to be found in the relations between the United Kingdom and France which were then – and still are – characterized by union and disunion, convergence and divergence aggravated by the prospect of Brexit.
EU member states today, partners in Europe tomorrow, the two nation-states both strongly attached to their national identity will have to think of the kind of relationship they want to establish post-Brexit, building on existing links but also developing new bilateral forms of cooperation. While the United Kingdom is engaged in a process of leaving the European Union, France, under the leadership of President Macron tries to promote a type of federal Europe based on ever more economic and political integration.
This book pursues these themes in an interdisciplinary fashion. It is the result of an international and pluridisciplinary symposium held at the University Pantheon-Assas (Paris 2) in partnership with the University of Tours on 24 and 25 May 2019 which gathered experts from different fields – historians, practising lawyers, law academics, political scientists, members of the military and defence specialists from both sides of the Channel. The symposium provided a unique opportunity to exchange well-informed diverse views on the current and future relationship between the United Kingdom and France, at a time of many uncertainties. The aim of this book is to give readers a better understanding of complex economic, political, social, cultural and strategic issues raised by Brexit involving the two countries and their future. Each author in his or her own speciality offers a better idea of what the relationship between the United Kingdom and France might look like in a post-Brexit world.
Lord Kenneth Morgan, member of the House of Lords, Fellow of Queen’s College (Oxford), former vice-President of the University of Wales and Fellow of the British Academy, looks at the “ Ententes ” - not always “ Cordiales ” - between France and the United Kingdom since 1904. He refers to the “partnership of winners” which was set up by David Lloyd George and George Clemenceau, which turned into a “partnership of enemies” straight after the Armistice, the two men having different goals in mind. The Munich crisis of September 1938 gave rise to a “partnership of losers” – if one may use the word partnership in that context – between Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier. With the second world war emerged a “partnership of prima donnas ” in the form of Winston Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle, who both had strong personalities. In the mid-1960s, there was an unexpected partnership between the then British prime minister, Anthony Eden, and Guy Mollet, former Socialist “ Président du Conseil ”, who seemed to agree to interfere with the affairs of Egypt. A few years later and after de Gaulle was forced to abandon office under popular pressure, there was a “partnership of bureaucrats” between British prime minister Edward Heath and French President Georges Pompidou. According to Lord Morgan, the last – and fairly odd - partnership of interest was that between Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand. It was a “partnership of ideologues” who did not necessarily agree on a political front but respected each other highly.
Antoine Capet, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of British studies of Rouen University, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, who sits on the International Board of Twentieth Century British History (Oxford University Press), focuses on the Winston Churchill’s legacy to the United Kingdom which may explain – at least in part – the United Kingdom’s current attitude to “Europe”. He explains that many of the contradictions which the British population has shown in relation to the question of Europe since the 2 nd world war may be explained by Churchill who openly fought for a federal model of Europe whilst refusing that the United Kingdom be part of it.
Aurélien Antoine, a Public law Professor at the Faculty of Law of Saint-Étienne, vice-dean for International Affairs and Communication and director of the Brexit Observatory, and Andrew Blick, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History and Director of the Centre for British Politics and Government at King’s College London, both look at constitutional issues. The former compares the concepts of Rule of Law and “ État de droit ” through the opposition between historicity and contemporaneity, practice and theory, societal issues and statism, whilst pointing to a convergence of the two legal systems under the influence of European laws. The latter focuses on the destabilisation of the United Kingdom constitution through the proposed Brexit.
The issue of defence – of the United Kingdom and of Europe – is then discussed by various authors. Patrick Chevallereau, Vice Admiral (retired), Former French Defence Attaché to the United Kingdom, Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, writes about the impact of a future Brexit on defence and security in Europe . Elizabeth Sheppard-Sellam, Associate Professor and the director of the program in International Relations and Politics at the University of Tours, examines the ways in which a future Brexit, amongst other possible factors, may impact on intelligence sharing between countries and may thus have consequences over the way counterterrorism operates in the context of Brexit.
Thibaud Harrois, Lecturer in British studies at the University Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3), refers to the likely re-definition of the Franco-British relationship in terms of security and defence in the context of a possible future Brexit. He analyses the rationale behind the deepening of bilateral cooperation with France and shows that it remains crucial if Britain wants to maintain its role as one of the main actors in European defence and security policy.
The book then moves on to consider a number of economic, legal and social issues. Matthias Kelly, Queen’s Counsel, former Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales and a Barrister in practice at 39 Essex Chambers (London) and Merchants Quay Chambers (Dublin) loo