The Government has set out the White Paper in advance of its proposed Great Repeal Bill. The Bill is not necessary for the UK to leave the EU. The Prime Minister has triggered Article 50, relying on the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017, and the UK is now on its way out of the EU. When the Article 50 process ends, the EU Treaties will cease to apply to the UK.
The expiry of the Treaties will change UK law in significant ways. The Great Repeal Bill is intended to minimise legal discontinuity and to maximise certainty for business and citizens. If enacted, it will repeal the European Communities Act 1972, the Act which has made EU law take direct effect in the UK and which has empowered much secondary legislation to implement EU law.
But in the same breath as repealing the 1972 Act, the Great Repeal Act (as it will be then) will transpose existing EU law into UK law.
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