I am very pleased to say the Scottish Court of Sessions has decided that the ECJ should hear a case to decide if Britain can unilaterally revoked the Article 50 notification (HERE). I am particularly happy because I contributed to the funding of the case through CrowdJustice. The case had been rejected once by a lower court after it accepted that the Government does not intend to withdraw the A50 notice and so the question whether it can do so or not is hypothetical.
On appeal, the higher court decided that it should go to the European Court of justice. The Scottish appeal court decided, “It seems neither academic nor premature to ask whether it is legally competent to revoke the notification and thus to remain in the EU.”
See the details on CrowdJustice website (HERE).
If the ECJ decide that the notification can indeed be withdrawn it will perhaps give MPs who are opposed to Brexit (a majority) the power to force the government to stop the process in the event that no Withdrawal Agreement is reached. It also makes life more difficult for Brexiteers and anything that does that is okay with me. Worth every penny.
Lord Carloway said in his judgement: “If Members of Parliament are to cast their votes in a responsible manner, it is surely obvious that they should be properly advised as to the existing legal position so far as that may be relevant to their deliberations,”
Quite right. It's not known yet if the government will appeal.
