A GROUNDBREAKING legal bid to give the UK Parliament the right to revoke Article 50 has taken a dramatic step forward after European judges agreed to fast-track the case.
The European Court of Justice said it will consider next month whether Britain can unilaterally cancel Brexit.
Dr Tobias Lock, one of the nation’s leading experts in EU law, previously told The Herald the case could be decided by Christmas and was likely to succeed.
It comes as the Irish Government urged Theresa May to bring forward her proposals to break the deadlock in the Brexit talks over the Northern Ireland border.
Mrs May has rejected the EU’s plans for a “backstop” to ensure there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but has yet to provide details of a promised alternative.
The landmark legal bid marks a rare show of co-operation between Labour, Green and SNP politicians and involves MEPs David Martin, Catherine Stihler and Alyn Smith, MP Joanna Cherry and MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer.
It comes after Scotland's highest court announced it would refer the question on to Luxembourg, and requested it be fast-tracked due to the “urgency of the issue”. The UK is currently due to leave the EU on March 29.
The ECJ confirmed it has "granted the fast-track procedure on the request for a preliminary ruling from a Scottish court on the reversibility of Article 50".
Jolyon Maugham QC, one of the key figures behind the bid, said a hearing would now take place on November 27. He said: "This is a case vital in our national interest.”
If successful, it would raise the prospect of MPs being able to cancel Brexit without requiring the assent of the other 27 EU members, and allow the UK Parliament the right to withdraw Article 50 – even if the UK Government itself still wanted to press ahead.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel