Lawyers for Britain demolish government claims we will lose trade deals when we leave the EU

The Lawyers for Britain group has blown claims that we will have to renegotiate all our trade details when we leave the EU out of the water with a report confirming that we will continue to benefit from any treaties we are already signed up to after we leave.

The Institute for Economic Affairs has described the report as a game changer.

The report cites Czechoslovakia as precedent where both the Czech Republic (or Czechia as the Czechs would like it to be known nowadays) and Slovakia inherited the treaty rights and obligations of Czechoslovakia following the velvet divorce.

International law is, in fact, quite clear on treaty law when states secede. It's even got its own Vienna Convention - the Vienna Convention on the Succession of States in respect of Treaties. The convention says that unless there is something written into a treaty that says a seceding state will no longer be party to the treaty, it inherits all its treaty rights and obligations. That includes treaties establishing free trade agreements.