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Brexit Case - The Government's Arguments

1,243 views · Published 6 December 2016 · 10:40 · Indexed 25 October 2026

Channel: marcuscleaver · 2016 · Education

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The Brexit case concerning the triggering of article 50 is underway at the Supreme Court and in this update episode we look at the government's arguments and consider just how convincing they are.

Under a dual constitution the government conducts foreign affairs on the international plane and this is then incorporated into domestic law by parliament. This should be no different for triggering article 50 which is a question of international law. The only way this can be avoided is (through A-G v De Keyser's Royal Hotel Ltd [1920]) by parliament saying so. 

However by looking at statutes such as the European Communities Act 1972, the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008, the European Union Referendum Act 2015 etc. parliament has never taken the power to trigger article 50 away from the government.

In fact by way of the referendum parliament passed this question to the people and it would be odd for the question to have to go back to parliament before moving forward.

The end of this episode considers the advantages and disadvantages of this argument.

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