Why the High Court got the law wrong about Brexit
Some reactions to the High Court’s judgment in the article 50 case, R (Miller) v Brexit Secretary, have been ugly, excessive and ridiculous. It’s excessive too to see the judgment as blocking Brexit,...
View ArticleWill Brexit rights have direct effect? The Human Rights Act may show us the...
The government published its latest “future partnership paper” today on “Enforcement and dispute resolution”, and most of the attention it’s gathered—and the government’s spin—has been about its...
View ArticleLaughing gas and the Psychoactive Substances Act
It’s been reported that some prosecutions under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 have collapsed recently, at Southwark and Taunton Crown Courts. The Taunton case at least was about the section 7...
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Same-sex marriage: the US, Europe and the Obergefell questions
The US Supreme Court’s opinion in Obergefell v Hodges – it may come out today, or next week – will be historic whatever it decides. The main question is whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the US...
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Could Greece take Europe to court?
Could a desperate Greece go to court over its financial dispute with Europe? The crisis is more about politics and finance than it is about law. But some reports have suggested Greece might take legal...
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What is Parliamentary sovereignty, anyway?
As we await David Cameron’s sovereignty plan this week, it might help to explain what we mean by “Parliamentary sovereignty”. When we talk about Parliamentary sovereignty, we don’t mean a general...
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What Boris told us about the “sovereignty plan”
Since I wrote about David Cameron’s “sovereignty plan”, it seems to have been forgotten. It’s clear the idea was aimed at keeping politicians in the Remain camp, and has failed. @carlgardner I...
View ArticleArticle 50, and UK constitutional law
If you’ve been following closely news about Britain’s EU referendum and its aftermath, you’ll probably have heard of article 50 of the Treaty on European Union which makes provision for a member state...
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Is a digital newspaper a newspaper? The “always speaking” principle
A Supreme Court judgment recently held that a digital newspaper isn’t a newspaper. This was the case of News Corp v HMRC, in which the media giant tried to get the court to agree that its digital...
View ArticleRetained EU law: shredding the shredder
That video gives the impression, doesn’t it, that Rishi Sunak was going to “shred” retained EU law within a hundred days? That was certainly the sort of thing many Conservative members wanted to hear...
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