Any prime minister will need parliamentary approval to trigger article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and initiate the UK’s exit from the European Union, according to a report by constitutional lawyers.
In a legal opinion published on Monday, Nick Barber, a fellow at Trinity College, Oxford, Tom Hickman, a barrister at Blackstone Chambers and reader at University Collegge, London, and Jeff King, a senior law lecturer at UCL, declare that: “In our constitution, parliament gets to make this decision, not the prime minister.”
They add:
The prime minister is unable to issue a declaration under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – triggering our withdrawal from the European Union – without having been first authorised to do so by an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament. Were he to attempt to do so before such a statute was passed, the declaration would be legally ineffective as a matter of domestic law and it would also fail to comply with the requirements of Article 50 itself.
Their argument is based on the fact article 50 states that any withdrawal from the EU must be made ‘in accordance with the state’s constitutional requirements’. Traditional constitutional arrangements involve parliamentary sovereignty.
“Parliament could conclude that it would be contrary to the national interest to invoke article 50 whilst it is in the dark about what the key essentials of the new relationship with the EU are going to be, and without knowing what terms the EU is going to offer,” the three authors suggest. Handing parliament, where the majority of MPs are remain supporters, a veto on Brexit is not a legal interpretation that is going to be welcomed by leave voters.
Well if that's the case it looks like this could play on for a good while yet before the nuke button gets pressed. I wonder what the situation would be if there wasn't a parlimentary majority to agree for Article 50 to be invoked?
