Tag: Parliamentary sovereignty
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Elizabeth Campion: Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain: Parliamentary and Governmental Power in the Wake of the EU Referendum
The case of Santos and M v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (CO/3281/2016 and CO/3809/2016) (“Santos“) was heard in the High Court this week by the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls and Sales LJ. Santos has been called “one of the most important constitutional law cases ever decided”. The…
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Robert Craig: Report of Proceedings: Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Day 2
Editors’ note: For a report on the first day of proceedings, please see here. Introduction The second day of proceedings in the Miller case started at 9.45am as scheduled following the swearing in of a new judge of the High Court. Three QCs appeared for the remaining Claimants: Helen Mountfield QC, Patrick Green QC and…
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Piet Eeckhout: The UK Decision to Withdraw from the EU: Parliament or Government?
The litigation concerning the triggering of Art 50 TEU is under way, with hearings this past week and early next. It is the constitutional case of the century. The Government’s skeleton argument has been published. This reveals that one of the pillars of its defence is that the decision to withdraw from the EU has…
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Robert Craig: Report of Proceedings: Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
Introduction Thursday 13 October 2016 marked the beginning of the hearing over the constitutional question of whether Article 50 may be triggered by the Government without further statutory authorisation. This post provides a report of the day’s proceedings. The two further days are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week. The first section sets out…
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Conor Gearty: The Human Rights Act Should Not Be Repealed
There is no reason to repeal the Human Rights Act and the government’s manifesto commitment to do so should be dropped. The objections to it are misconceived, the arguments against it being based either on inaccurate understandings of what it says or error-strewn assertions about the nature of its impact. The political motive for attacking…
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Alex Green: Why the EU Referendum Might Be Morally Binding – A Partial Response to Yossi Nehushtan
In an erudite and sophisticated post on this blog, Dr Yossi Nehushtan argues that the United Kingdom’s recent referendum on membership in the European Union is not morally binding on the British government. Whilst there is plenty there that I agree with, in a number of ways I think his conclusion was too quick. In…
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Rebecca Williams: Do We Have to Follow the Result of the Brexit Referendum?
Legally the answer is clear: no. The European Union Referendum Act 2015 states that a referendum should be held. It does not state what should happen thereafter. Indeed, it is argued that we cannot follow it by issuing a notification under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty without a further Act of Parliament (see CLA…
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Yossi Nehushtan: Why the EU Referendum’s Result Is not Morally-Politically Binding
Thus far, while the UK is trying to comprehend the EU referendum’s result, there seems to be a consensus according to which even though the referendum is merely advisory, it would be morally and politically wrong for Parliament to refuse following the ‘leave’ result. Here I wish to challenge this consensus. The difference between ‘legally…
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Sionaidh Douglas-Scott: Brexit, the Referendum and the UK Parliament: Some Questions about Sovereignty
So, we have the result of the Referendum, and a majority of voters have voted to leave the EU. A mantra of Leave campaigners seems to have been the desire to ‘take back control’. There has been much talk of sovereignty, although less clarity on what it actually means. However, at its most basic, there…
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Kenneth Armstrong: Push Me, Pull You: Whose Hand on the Article 50 Trigger?
The days since the outcome of the British referendum vote to leave the European Union have seen much speculation over the law and politics of withdrawing from the EU under Article 50 TEU. Two rather separate strands of speculation have begun to appear. On the one hand – and driven by an increasing acceptance that…