Mishcon de Reya, a prominent British law firm, is taking pre-emptive legal action against the government to try and ensure that the United Kingdom doesn’t leave the European Union without a corresponding act of parliament.
The exact means by which the UK can leave the EU has been very clouded over the past few weeks – many on the Leave side of things reckon that the Brexit referendum was enough, and the government can move on it now, whereas some think it’ll need to pass through parliament first.
Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union – which sets out how nations can go about leaving the EU – says “any member state may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.” It’s that last bit about constitutional requirements that has so many legal experts in a tizzy.
Now, solicitors at Mishcon de Reya are going at the government about it. They’re repping an anonymous group of clients, who are almost certainly business figures and corporations who aren’t keen on all that economic and financial chaos that’s been predicted.
Reps from the firm have said that they are attempting “to seek assurances that the government will uphold the UK constitution and protect the sovereignty of parliament in invoking article 50”.
“We must make sure this is done properly for the benefit of all UK citizens. Article 50 simply cannot be invoked without a full debate and vote in parliament,” they said.
Clearly the end goal here is to somehow stop Brexit by getting it strung up in parliament, where there probably aren’t enough MPs to let the legislation through. We’ll see how this one goes.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty Images / Barcroft Media.
