{"id":20569,"date":"2016-11-04T08:03:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T15:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/court-rules-lawmakers-must-get-say-in-eu-exit\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T08:03:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T15:03:44","slug":"court-rules-lawmakers-must-get-say-in-eu-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/court-rules-lawmakers-must-get-say-in-eu-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Court rules lawmakers must get say in EU exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON<\/strong> \u2014 Britain\u2019s plans to leave the European Union hit a large speed bump Thursday, as the High Court ruled that the government can\u2019t start exit negotiations without a vote in Parliament.<\/p>\n

The judgment deepened Britain\u2019s divide over Europe, raising hopes among pro-EU politicians that they can soften the terms of the U.K.\u2019s withdrawal from the bloc. \u201cLeave\u201d campaigners say any attempt to do that would be a betrayal of voters\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n

The government immediately said it would ask the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. The Court has set aside time in early December to hear the case.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s ruling could delay government plans to start talks on Britain\u2019s EU exit, or Brexit, within weeks, and opens a major constitutional battle over the balance of power between Parliament and the government.<\/p>\n

Brexit Secretary David Davis said Britain\u2019s June 23 vote to leave the EU \u201cmust be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people want us to get on with it, and that is what we are going to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will use centuries-old powers known as royal prerogative to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty, which launches two years of exit negotiations, by the end of March.<\/p>\n

The powers \u2014 traditionally held by the monarch but now used by politicians \u2014 enable decisions about international treaties and other issues to be made without a vote of Parliament.<\/p>\n

Several claimants, including a hairdresser and a financial entrepreneur, challenged May\u2019s right to act. They argued that leaving the EU will remove rights, including free movement within the bloc, and that it couldn\u2019t be done without Parliament\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

Three senior judges agreed, ruling that \u201cthe government does not have the power under the Crown\u2019s prerogative to give notice pursuant to Article 50 for the U.K. to withdraw from the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judges backed the claimants\u2019 argument that the government could not remove Britons\u2019 legal rights \u201cunless Parliament had conferred upon the Crown authority to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling infuriated pro-Brexit campaigners, who see the lawsuit as an attempt to block or delay Britain\u2019s EU exit.<\/p>\n

U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, tweeted: \u201cI worry that a betrayal may be near at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI now fear that every attempt will be made to block or delay the triggering of Article 50,\u201d Farage said. \u201cIf this is so, they have no idea of the level of public anger they will provoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely the ruling will stop Britain leaving the EU eventually. Most lawmakers accept that voters\u2019 decision must be respected \u2014 but they differ widely on what form Brexit should take and how close a relationship Britain should keep with the EU.<\/p>\n

A majority of members of Parliament backed the \u201cremain\u201d side in the referendum, but could be willing to support the start of exit talks if it\u2019s clear that the government won\u2019t seek a \u201chard Brexit,\u201d in which Britain leaves the EU\u2019s single market.<\/p>\n

Pro-EU legislators hope the ruling will force the government to set out its plans for exit negotiations before triggering Article 50, something May has previously ruled out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there is a mandate for leaving the EU, and we have to accept and respect the result of the referendum,\u201d the opposition Labour Party\u2019s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, told the BBC. \u201cBut the terms, and how we leave the EU, are vitally important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial entrepreneur Gina Miller, a lead claimant in the case, said the lawsuit wasn\u2019t an attempt to stop Brexit \u2014 just to ensure that Parliament is sovereign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the MPs (members of Parliament) will do their job and debate this in a sober, grown up way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

David Greene, lawyer for hairdresser Deir Santos, another claimant, said \u201cdemocracy has been reaffirmed and now very much needs to show it is alive and kicking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pound, which has lost about a fifth of its value since the June 23 decision to leave the EU, shot back up on the verdict, rising about 1.5 percent to $1.2493. The ruling boosted the hopes of the financial sector, which is largely opposed to Brexit, that its effects may be mitigated by Parliament.<\/p>\n

The case is considered the most important constitutional matter in a generation, pitting the rights of Parliament against those of the executive.<\/p>\n

Nick Barber, associate professor of constitutional law at Oxford University, said the court had ruled decisively that \u201cyou can\u2019t use executive power to overturn statutory rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff King, professor of law at University College London, said the government\u2019s Supreme Court appeal \u201cwould be unlikely to succeed under the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the High Court judges \u201cgave a comprehensive ruling on many points, many of which could cause the government\u2019s argument to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the government loses, it will be forced to let the House of Commons and the House of Lords have a vote. It\u2019s unclear whether that would be done with a simple motion to trigger Article 50, or would need a full Act of Parliament.<\/p>\n

Passing legislation can take months of debate, argument and amendment, so that might see the government\u2019s timetable for Brexit slipping even further.<\/p>\n

There is a chance the Supreme Court could refer the case to the European Court of Justice, the EU\u2019s highest court, if it thinks a legal principle needs clarification.<\/p>\n

That would be an ironic outcome given Britain\u2019s vote to leave the EU, but Barber said it\u2019s extremely unlikely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all sides would agree that would be a mess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Britain\u2019s plans to leave the European Union hit a large speed bump Thursday, as the High Court ruled that the government can\u2019t start exit negotiations without a vote in Parliament. The judgment deepened Britain\u2019s divide over Europe, raising hopes among pro-EU politicians that they can soften the terms of the U.K.\u2019s withdrawal from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20569"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}