The House of Lords & the EU Withdrawal Bill (Pt 2)

The Constitution Committee’s report on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill (HL Paper 69, January 29, 2018) says: ‘[T]he creation of retained EU law by the Bill will introduce uncertainties and ambiguities into the law. These will be compounded if the Bill does not direct the courts clearly as to how they should go about the task of interpreting retained EU law.’ (para 125)

In regard to pre-exit retained EU law that has not been modified, clause 6(3) of the Bill provides that questions as to interpretation will be determined by reference to any retained case law and any retained general principles of EU law. Only the Supreme Court and the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland would be free to depart from pre-exit decisions of the European Court. In deciding whether