Art 127 to be focus of new Brexit High Court case
The High Court is due to decide next week whether it will allow judicial review on the issue of whether the UK’s departure from the EU will automatically take it out of the European Economic Area (EEA or single market).
Remain voter Peter Wilding and Leave voter Adrian Yalland have instructed lawyers to argue that the EU referendum did not cover membership of the single market, and that it is wrong in law to conflate the two. They have set up a campaign group called Single Market Justice to crowdfund for the case.
In a statement on their campaign website, Wilding and Yalland said: “Our legal team will argue that only Parliament has the right to trigger Art 127 [of the EEA] if it wants to leave the single market. We believe leaving the single market without Parliamentary permission would be undemocratic, unjust and not in the national interest.”
They point out that the single market is a separate treaty between individual member states of the EU and four non-EU states, that membership is separate from membership of the EU, is governed by non-EU law, and establishes rights and freedoms that are separate from those arising from membership of the EU.
The Supreme Court is due to hand down its judgment on the high-profile Art 50 case, brought by Gina Miller, later this month, ruling on whether Parliamentary approval is required to trigger the Art 50 exit process.
And lawyers will be watching closely to see whether a third potential challenge is launched on whether Art 50 can be revoked once the UK gives notice of its intention to leave. Jolyon Maugham QC, of Devereux Chambers, crowdfunded more than £70,000 within 48 hours last month for a potential legal action in the Irish courts on this issue. Legal proceedings have not yet been issued.
