BACKGROUND

The United Kingdom is unique in the United Nations in retaining sovereignty over – and international responsibility for – more than 20 dependent territories. These are spread around the globe, in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and in the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas. All, except Gibraltar, are islands. Each has its own constitution and individual relationship with the UK. All enjoy substantial internal legislative, executive and judicial autonomy, with ultimate sovereignty and responsibility for international relations3 and defence being retained by the UK. Most of these territories have been possessions of the British Crown for hundreds of years. In some cases (Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands), UK sovereignty is contested. The relationship between the Channel Islands and England dates back to 1204, when King John withdrew English troops from Normandy. The Isle of Man came under the English Crown in 1399.

When the UK joined the European Community (EC) in 1973, all the UK territories were consulted and opted for different forms of very limited association with the Communities. Unlike the legal situation of the UK itself as an EU member state, which evolved almost beyond recognition over 46 years, the rules applying to the UK's dependencies remained unchanged in a “time warp” until Brexit in 2020. In the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, with the exception of Gibraltar, none of the 510,000 inhabitants of the other territories were allowed to vote. Nonetheless, the legal relationship between the territories and the EU ended, as with that of the UK itself, on 31 January 2020.

Today, almost four years after the referendum and in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic that will reshape international relations, the territories – like the UK itself – suffer from political, economic and legal uncertainty. They are all, without doubt, “fragile ships floating in a storm-tossed sea”.

Because of their sui generis, fragmentary and outdated nature, none of the treaty arrangements made for the UK dependencies in 1973 could serve as a model for the UK's future relationship with the EU after 2020.