Brexit has represented one of the most debated and controversial events in the history of European integration. For the first time, a member state decided to withdraw from the EU, questioning the vision of a linear development of the integration process and certifying the crisis of the ideal of supranationality in comparison with a revival of nationalist and sovereign thrusts. Since the outcome of the June 2016 Referendum made apparent the will of the majority of the British people to leave the EU, scholars throughout the world have proposed various analysis and interpretation in order to deepen this unprecedented phenomenon, but the considerable complexity that has characterized the Brexit process since its early stages has often produced frustration and created a general lack of comprehension of this event from the audience.

Federico Fabbrini, Full Professor of European Law at the School of Law & Government of Dublin City University (DCU) and Principal of the Brexit Institute, tries to dispel the frequent doubts on this topic publishing a pocket-sized volume entitled ‘Brexit. Tra diritto e politica’ in which he offers a concise, extremely complete and exhaustive account of the main steps that characterized the process of the UK's exit from the EU.

The originality of this work lies in the multidisciplinary methodological approach that Fabbrini chose for the drafting of the book, combining both political and institutional elements with considerations relating to Law and Economics. In fact, as the author explains in the introduction of the text, a multidisciplinary analysis results the most appropriate in order to fully capture the dynamics that have influenced a complex process such as Brexit (p. 14). According to Fabbrini, while the economic elements were proving marginal in the definition of Brexit, this last was being mostly influenced by an intersection of juridical and political mechanisms. In fact, although Brexit was primarily a political act, animated by the sovereign and populist aspiration to ‘take back control’ of the country, rejecting the dynamics of transnational interdependence, the modalities with which the UK left the EU, and the terms of the withdrawal agreement itself, have been strongly influenced by legal considerations, mainly related to the specificity of the constitutional system in force in the UK and the peculiarities of the European Law.

The 10 chapters of the book can be divided into three parts: in the first (ch.1-3), the author tries to identify the political reasons for the alleged Euroscepticism of the UK by briefly retracing the historical relationship between the UK and the EU, from the early stages of the process of European integration to the fateful 2016 Referendum. In the second section (ch. 4-6), Fabbrini analyzes the negotiation processes and the UK's withdrawal agreement from the EU, identifying the elements that determined a sharp contrast between the political aspirations of the supporters of Brexit to sever ties with the EU and the stringent legal constraints that make this target practically impossible. The final part (ch. 7-10) is instead dedicated to final reflections on the advantages of the EU and the difficulties of leaving it, also in the light of the Italian debate on Europe.

Although all sections of the text provide numerous points for debate, the core of the work is surely represented by its second part. Fabbrini stresses how the long period of belonging of the UK to the EU has led to a very high level of political, economic, and legal integration that it is utopian to obliterate overnight. The contents of the withdrawal agreement, which the author illustrates with extreme precision, are particularly significant in this sense. In fact, the provisions of the aforementioned accord extend the powers of the European Court of Justice in the UK, the application of EU Law in the country, and the obligation for the UK to honor its financial burdens with the EU for many years after Brexit. The persistence of stringent juridical ties between the UK and the EU, which represents the inevitable consequence of almost 50 years of membership, strongly scaled back the political aspirations of the Brexiteers, ‘making the goal of taking back control of the country more of a dream than a concrete reality’ (p.97). Furthermore, the entire Brexit process has put the British constitutional system under strain, generating an unusual situation of political instability and provoking continuous tensions, embarrassment, and legislative delays.

In the third part, the author re-emphasizes the fundamental insubstantiality of a process like Brexit, furtherly defining this latter as an ‘odyssey’ (p. 133), and including this topic in the Italian debate on the EU. Fabbrini underlines how the Italian Constitution, as it protects the country from rash political choices like Brexit, strongly constrains Italy to belonging to international organizations like the EU. An eventual ‘Italexit’ would take a real constitutional change, accompanied by a radical mutation of the form of state (p. 138). This would be true also for the majority of the member states of the EU. Moreover, the considerable difficulties encountered by the UK in the finalization of the Brexit process have, according to the author, almost completely discouraged populist parties in Italy and elsewhere to follow the UK's example (p. 123)

While it is easy to agree with the author on how the complexity of member states’ constitutional frameworks and the legal and economic constraints that bind former EU members to the latter organization even after their exit make a process like Brexit very complicated and little substantive and fruitful, the optimism shown by Fabbrini in the final part of his speech cannot be shared. Despite the obvious and well-documented awkwardness that the UK has experienced in recent years, Brexit has finally been carried out and the UK has indeed started its new path outside the EU. It cannot be excluded that the determination shown by a radical politician like the current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cannot be emulated by other nationalist leaders who are equally perseverant in bringing their countries out of the EU.

Ultimately, Fabbrini's book is highly recommended to academics, students, and journalists interested in the dynamics of international relations and in particular in the process of European integration. The clarity of presentation, objectivity, and the author's extraordinary ability to synthesize important topics make the reading of this text very pleasant and fluent, providing a big picture of one of the most difficult phenomena to comprehend in current times.