Tag: Article 50 – revocability
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Kenneth Armstrong: The Advent of Brexit – Can It Be Paused?
As each day passes, a new window seems to be thrown open exposing fresh legal issues to be solved as the UK continues its journey towards its withdrawal from the European Union. It’s like opening an advent calendar for lawyers. On Monday 10 December, the Court of Justice of the European Union in its Wightman…
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Gavin Phillipson and Alison L. Young: Wightman: What Would Be the UK’s Constitutional Requirements to Revoke Article 50?
Today the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment in Wightman. This followed the opinion of Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona, concluding that the UK may unilaterally revoke its notification of its intention to leave the EU. In a similar manner to the AG, the CJEU placed conditions on this unilateral revocation. A…
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Robert Brett Taylor and Adelyn L. M. Wilson: Seeking and Implementing a Referral on Revocability of Article 50 Following Wightman
The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019. The British Government’s draft withdrawal agreement – the so-called Chequers Deal or Plan – has been subject to critique on both sides of the Brexit debate within the UK and was largely dismissed as unworkable by EU leaders on 20 September 2018. The…
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Brian Christopher Jones: Wightman and How Not to Advance the Law
Wightman v Advocate General [2018] concerns whether it is legally possible to reverse an Article 50 notice given to the European Union. At first instance the Lord Ordinary refused permission for the petition to proceed, saying that the issue was “hypothetical and academic”. Under the Court of Session Act 1988, one of the hurdles for…
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Robert Craig: Why an Act of Parliament Would Be Required to Revoke Notification under Article 50
The possibility of the UK revoking its Article 50 notice is hitting the headlines. The Prime Minister was asked last Monday in Parliament if she had received legal advice that she could revoke the triggering of the Article 50 process. Her equivocal response led many to believe that such advice does indeed exist. Last Tuesday,…
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Cormac Mac Amhlaigh: Can Brexit Be Stopped under EU Law?
Ominous clouds are gathering and the terrain underfoot increasingly resembles a quagmire on the Brexiteers’ ‘sunlit uplands’. The latest reminders that the reality will be significantly different from their utopia of a prosperous global Buccaneering Britain has come in the form of a trade dispute between the U.S. and a Canadian aircraft manufacturer which could…
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Stijn Smismans: About the Revocability of Withdrawal: Why the EU (Law) Interpretation of Article 50 Matters
In the Miller case the High Court of England and Wales did not question the parties’ common understanding that withdrawal under Article 50 cannot be revoked once triggered. However, academic opinion on the issue is divided. Interestingly enough, the academic debate on Article 50 has particularly developed from a UK constitutionalist perspective (understandably as far…
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Francesco de Cecco: Miller, Article 50 Revocability and the Question of Control
The parties in the High Court judgement in Miller took it as a given that the notification made under Article 50 TEU is irrevocable. That view jars with the opinions of Kerr, Piris, Wyatt, Edward, Craig (among others) who have set out compelling reasons to support the opposite conclusion. Recent reports suggest that the Government…
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Aris Georgopoulos: (Un)Crossing the Rubicon: Why the Supreme Court Should Not Refer a Question Regarding the Revocability of Article 50 to the ECJ
On 3 November the High Court issued its long awaited judgement in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union which ruled that the Government does not have power under the Crown’s prerogative to trigger Article 50 TEU. One point that the judgment did not deal with was whether the notification under…
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Ronan McCrea: Arguing that Article 50 Notification Is Reversible Involves Risks for the Government
Well-placed sources have reported to the Guardian that the Government’s lawyers will argue before the Supreme Court that notice triggering Article 50 can be revoked if the UK changes its mind about leaving the EU before its departure from the Union takes place. This marks a significant change from the strategy adopted before the High…