Was Britain ever part of Europe?

This Working Paper, presented in Florence as a Distinguished Lecture at the European University Institute’s summer course on EU law in July 2015, explored Britain’s ambivalent relationship to Europe and gave five reasons why a vote to leave the EU – a distant possibility as the polls then stood – was a likely (though regrettable) outcome of the promised referendum.

The paper was illustrated from my personal experience working in the private office of Lord Cockfield, Commissioner for the Internal Market during one of the European Commission’s most productive periods, as a teacher on frequent trips to Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, and as an advocate before the EU Court of Justice for almost 30 years.

Less than two years have passed since the lecture was delivered.  It seems like an age.