Summary: On April 1, 2019, UK Parliament implemented the second phase of its ‘Indicative Votes’ process, which had been devised to find out if there was a UK Parliamentary majority for any one Brexit strategy, following Friday’s third UK Parliamentary defeat of the Withdrawal Agreement that was negotiated between the UK Government and EU. Chart available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-politics-46393399 All four alternate Brexit strategies put forward were rejected by UK Parliament. The four proposals put forward…

  Over the last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued two updated advisories, as well as issued a series of new designations of Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs), highlighting the sanctions-related risks for, and the focus on, the shipping community. Taken together, they provide important guidance for members of the shipping industry—including shipping companies, ship owners, insurance companies, and financial institutions with shipping practices, port operators, and…

Summary:   Following negotiations that went well into the night, the EU took control of the Brexit endgame, turning down the UK Prime Minister’s plea to postpone Brexit from 29 March to 30 June, and instead drawing up a “flextension” plan that officially delays Brexit to 12 April 2019 at the earliest. Under the terms of the plan, which was devised by the EU’s 27 heads of state and government and accepted by the UK…

Summary: On 20 March, the UK Prime Minister formally wrote to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, requesting that Brexit should be delayed until 30 June 2019 – three months later than the long-envisaged exit date next Friday, 29 March 2019. The UK Government’s request will be discussed on 21 March by the EU’s 27 heads of state and government at the European Council summit in Brussels. It is unlikely the EU will unanimously approve the UK’s…

Speaker of the House invokes Parliamentary Protocol from 1604 Summary: Monday, March 18, 2019, saw the Prime Minister blocked from putting forward the Brexit “Withdrawal Agreement” that the UK Government negotiated with the EU to a third Parliamentary vote. John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, who in accordance with longstanding UK Parliamentary protocol, decides on whether to allow any vote, told the UK Government that it cannot bring the deal back for a third vote…