Tag: EU Withdrawal Act

The Brexit Secretary says he has “set in stone” the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 — but the legal significance of this misleading claim is very limited

Mark Elliott

Earlier today, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Stephen Barclay MP, posted a tweet saying that he had “signed the legislation setting in stone the repeal” of the European Communities Act 1972 (ECA). (The ECA is the UK statute that gives effect to EU law in the UK’s domestic legal system.) He… Continue reading The Brexit Secretary says he has “set in stone” the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 — but the legal significance of this misleading claim is very limited

Did the UK Government act unlawfully by extending Article 50?

Mark Elliott

A group of Conservative MPs — including Suella Braverman, Bill Cash and David Jones — have written to the Prime Minister arguing that the UK Government acted unlawfully by obtaining an extension to the Article 50 period without (in their view) due reference to Parliament. Their argument centres upon the way in which the definition… Continue reading Did the UK Government act unlawfully by extending Article 50?

What if ‘exit day’ is not redefined in domestic law?

Mark Elliott

I wrote yesterday about the statutory instrument that the Government has laid before Parliament so as to realign the domestic definition of ‘exit day’ in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) with the European Council’s decision to extend the Article 50 period to 12 April or 22 May (depending on whether the Withdrawal Agreement… Continue reading What if ‘exit day’ is not redefined in domestic law?

Redefining ‘exit day’ in domestic law

Mark Elliott

In an earlier post, I explained that the European Council’s decision to extend the Article 50 period is a separate matter from the way in which ‘exit day’ is defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA). Among other things, this means that whether or not ‘exit day’ is redefined in domestic law will… Continue reading Redefining ‘exit day’ in domestic law

Revoking Article 50: Legislating to take a no-deal Brexit off the table

Mark Elliott

Throughout all of the twists and turns of the Brexit process so far, a rare point of certainty had (until recently) been that the UK was set to leave the EU on 29 March 2019. But following last week’s European Council decision, that is no longer the case. The new default position is that the… Continue reading Revoking Article 50: Legislating to take a no-deal Brexit off the table

Extending Article 50: Separating myth and legal reality

Mark Elliott

There appears to be a degree of uncertainty about the legal position concerning the extension of Article 50. Confusion seems to have arisen thanks to a combination of the way in which the European Council structured its decision to grant an extension and failure to understand the distinction and relationship between relevant provisions of European… Continue reading Extending Article 50: Separating myth and legal reality

Video: Cambridge Centre for Public Law event on the Scottish Continuity Bill case

Mark Elliott

https://youtu.be/3G00xv8HfWY I have written before about the Supreme Court’s judgment, given in December 2018, in the ‘Scottish Continuity Bill case’ [2018] UKSC 64. The Continuity Bill was adopted by the Scottish Parliament against the background of serious disagreement between the Scottish and UK Governments concerning the UK Parliament’s European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (on which see this post). That disagreement… Continue reading Video: Cambridge Centre for Public Law event on the Scottish Continuity Bill case

Executive law-making and Brexit: Are Parliament’s hard-won safeguards being undermined?

Mark Elliott

The EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 gives extraordinary law-making powers to the Government. Parliament sought to counterbalance those powers with a bespoke system for scrutinising their exercise. But is the Government now undermining those arrangements?