Between December 5 and 8, the UK Supreme Court heard an appeal (Appeal) from the UK government (Government) with respect to R (on the application of Miller & Dos Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.
Continue Reading UK Supreme Court Hears UK Government’s Article 50 Brexit Case Appeal

On November 3, a three-member panel of the High Court of Justice’s Queen’s Bench Division ruled that government ministers do not have the unfettered right to trigger the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union by submitting notice under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. In a strongly worded opinion citing English case law from as far back as the early 1600s, the court concluded that longstanding constitutional arrangements limit the Crown’s—and therefore ministers’—“prerogative powers” to alter UK domestic law unilaterally. In defense, the government argued that the Article 50 notice represented the exercise of the Crown’s traditional prerogative powers in the field of international relations to conclude treaties. However, the judges were persuaded by the claimants that the act of submitting an Article 50 notice would lead inevitably to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, which would necessarily cause the rights afforded to UK citizens under EU law— which form part of UK domestic law due to the European Communities Act 1972 (ECA)—to be withdrawn, and on matters of UK domestic law Parliament is sovereign.
Continue Reading UK Government Must Consult Parliament Before Triggering Withdrawal From European Union, Court Rules