The Guardian: UK cannot stop article 50 case going to ECJ, says Scottish court

08 November 2018

Scotland’s highest court has refused the UK government leave to appeal its referral of a case to the European court of justice that seeks to establish whether the UK can unilaterally stop Brexit. This paves the way for the case to be heard in Luxembourg later this month.

The case has been brought by a cross-party group of six Scottish MPs, MEPs and MSPs, along with Jolyon Maugham QC, the director of the Good Law Project, who helped arrange the case after a crowdfunding appeal. They want the ECJ to offer a definitive ruling on whether the UK can halt the article 50 process without needing the approval of the 27 other EU member states.

At the court of session in Edinburgh on Thursday, Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, rejected the arguments put by the advocate general, Lord Keen, on behalf of the UK government to appeal the decision before the supreme court in London.

Carloway said that if the ECJ was required to await the decision of the supreme court, then there would be “little prospect” of the hearing taking place in advance of the Commons “meaningful vote” on Brexit, rendering the entire exercise “academic”. [...]

Full article on The Guardian

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