Politicians across party lines seek legal assistance to know if the UK can still be part of the EU
Can brexit be reversed? That is what a few politicians want to find out at a time when the brexit process is well on its way. Politicians who want to petition the court for the purpose, include Green MSPs, MEPs from Labour and the SNP. They want to discover if the UK can legally go back on the process and that brexit can be halted so that Britain remains a part of the European Union.
For the purpose, they have resorted to crowd funding – the most popular way of raising funds from people through crowd funding to cover the legal costs which is expected to be £50,000 by December 29. The group raised £10,000 within 12 hours of the appeal going live.
As evident in many recent ventures by businesses seeking crowd funding, crowd funding has proved to be hugely successful. In this case, it remains to be seen what comes out of the campaign by the group of politicians.
The politicians concerned – Greens Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, the SNP’s Alyn Smith and David Martin of Labour – are seeking to find out if the UK can unilaterally revoke the Article 50 letter that was submitted by Theresa May in March this year, formally initiating Britain’s two-year withdrawal process from the EU. The group of politicians seek to petition the Court of Session in Edinburgh, urging judges there to refer the matter on to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
The group of politicians insists that Article 50 has been misinterpreted. They said that according to the proper interpretation as part of EU law and public international law, notification by any member state can unilaterally be withdrawn at any time within the two year period. In a letter sent to Brexit Secretary David Davis and Lord Keen QC, the Advocate General for Scotland, the politicians insisted that the UK Government’s interpretation of Article 50 is “wrong as a matter of law”.
Jo Maugham QC, a leading lawyer involved in the case said that the “key thing to recognise is contrary to what Theresa May said the die was not cast on March 29 2017” when the UK’s Article 50 letter was submitted. He said that the case was seeking to make clear that the UK does not require the consent of the other 27 European member states to pull out of the bloc. He added that they seek to convey that Article 50 can be revoked, the notice can be withdrawn, without needing permission, adding that only the Court of Justice in Luxembourg can answer and so this group of cross party MSPs and MEPs have got together to bring a case in the court of session to seek to persuade that court to refer these questions to Luxembourg. He said that the Court of Justice is the only decision maker on the topic. The lawyer also stated the Brexit referendum in June 2016 was only an advisory vote and the UK Parliament is not bound by the referendum result.
