The following podcast contains advertising.

To access an ad-free version of the Lawfare podcast, become a material supporter of Lawfare at

patreon.com slash lawfare. That's patreon.com slash lawfare.

Also, check out Lawfare's other podcast offerings, Rational Security, Chatter, Lawfare No Bull,

and The Aftermath.

I think there had been a lot of healthy skepticism about Boris Johnson's election campaign pledge to get Brexit done,

given that there was the recognition that in many ways the much tougher fights now had to happen.

So in terms of negotiating the divorce, it was fairly clear what the provisions were that needed to be agreed.

And with the exception of the handling of the Irish border,

a lot of those were relatively clear. But now we are moving on to the much more difficult

and the much more contentious fights. And what you were already seeing is the EU arguing that

it wants to maintain level playing field commitments, that it wants the UK to agree to

continue aligning on a certain number of regulations to end up easing trade between the two sides.

And yet at the same time, you have Boris Johnson taking a much tougher stance,

suggesting that that's not going to be the case. And so even though there is some clarity,

there is some relief, we are going to be able to finalize the divorce within the next couple of

weeks, I think there is an expectation that 2020 is going to be quite contentious between the

two sides while they try and hammer out arrangements on what this actually looks like.

I'm Gordon All, and this is The Lawfare Podcast, December 21st, 2019.

This week, following a resounding victory by Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party in British elections,

members of parliament have backed Johnson's plan to withdraw from the

EU by January 31st. But before they did that, Benjamin Wittes got on the phone from an undisclosed

...