Tag: Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
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Kasey McCall-Smith: The Realities of Being Global: Treaty Law and Brexit
Throughout the two years of Brexit debates following Article 50 notification, the UK Government and Parliament consistently have failed to recognise that even if EU law is no longer applicable after Brexit, the UK is still bound to a broad gamut of rules under international law. Apparently attempting to appease Brexiteers, on 11 March Theresa…
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Philip Allott: Taking Stock of the Legal Fallout from the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017
Some of the accumulated noxious legal dust will now settle with the enacting of the grossly mistitled EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017. We may have witnessed our first post-legal legal event. Populist law. If many people say a legally incorrect thing many times, it may come to be treated as if it were correct.…
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Richard Clayton QC: New Directions for Article 10: Strasbourg Reverses the Supreme Court in Kennedy
The Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v Charity Commission was striking from many points of view. Mr Kennedy was a journalist frustrated by the way the Commission handled his allegations concerning George Galloway MP’s controversial Iraq charity, the Miriam Appeal. He applied for disclosure of documents under the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that a…
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David Feldman: Brexit, the Royal Prerogative, and Parliamentary Sovereignty
The issues in Miller In R. (Miller) v. Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin) judges had to decide, as a matter of law, on the constitutionally correct procedure for deciding whether and when to notify the President of the European Council that the UK intends to leave the EU,…
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Aurel Sari: Biting the Bullet: Why the UK Is Free to Revoke Its Withdrawal Notification under Article 50 TEU
‘There is no going back.’ These were the words of Lord Pannick, uttered before the High Court in response to the question whether the United Kingdom could rescind its notification to withdraw from the European Union once issued under Article 50 TEU (Santos and M v Secretary of State for Exiting The European Union, uncorrected…
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Jake Rylatt: The Irrevocability of an Article 50 Notification: Lex Specialis and the Irrelevance of the Purported Customary Right to Unilaterally Revoke
With the constitution of a new UK Government formed around a policy of ‘Brexit’, and the creation of the new ministerial position of ‘Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union’, the likelihood that Article 50 will actually be triggered has increased significantly. In addition to the cavalcade of recent posts addressing who is constitutionally…
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Charles Streeten: Putting the Toothpaste Back in the Tube: Can an Article 50 Notification Be Revoked?
Introduction It is, as the rather outmoded saying goes, a woman’s prerogative to change her mind; but what about the United Kingdom’s? Whilst there has been much academic discussion, not to mention one live and two threatened claims for judicial review, regarding the power to issue a notification pursuant to Article 50 of the Treaty…
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Ewan Smith: What Would Happen if the Government Unlawfully Issued an Article 50 Notification without Parliamentary Approval?
In “Pulling the Article 50 ‘Trigger’: Parliament’s Indispensable Role” Nick Barber, Jeff King and Tom Hickman argued that it is Parliament, and not the government, who get to decide whether to trigger a notification under Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union. I agree with them. Barber, King and Hickman base the argument on…
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Sionaidh Douglas-Scott: What Happens to ‘Acquired Rights’ in the Event of a Brexit?
Two recent UK Constitutional Law Association blogs (see here and here) have highlighted the importance of rights in the context of the UK’s referendum on EU membership, and indeed within EU law more generally. However, one area of EU rights law where there still exists little information is that of acquired rights. In spite of…