If the recent high court ruling on Brexit is upheld, then MPs in the UK Parliament will have to approve the decision to trigger Article 50 and begin the process for leaving the European Union. But how would this vote actually take place and what influence will Parliament have over the negotiations? Based on a recent report, Sara Hagemann assesses Parliament’s role in Brexit, noting that with Westminster also obliged to transpose into domestic law all the EU law which currently has direct effect in the UK, the political and legal headaches caused by Brexit have only just begun.
What are the implications of the court ruling that parliamentary approval is required for triggering the UK’s departure from the European Union? The story dominated media headlines for several days – with the frightening suggestion by some of the tabloids that the judges proved to be ‘enemies of the people’ since the court ruling will doubtless complicate the government’s plans for withdrawal from the EU.
The case is now pending a further decision by the Supreme Court, and much depends on what is concluded at that stage – with the hearing taking place around 8-9 December and an outcome expected in early January. In the meantime, an important report by UK in a Changing Europe investigates in detail the way Brexit might happen, and considers the role and influence Parliament can have on the negotiations – both with regards to the approval of the Article 50 text if the ruling from the High Court last week is upheld by the Supreme Court, and with regards to the vast volume of legislation that will follow.
Parliament’s approval of Article 50 could tie the government’s hands from the outset
As we argue in the report, it really cannot be overstated how important this case will be for the Brexit negotiations but also for the UK constitutional order more broadly. At the core of the court’s decision will be a decision about whether simply opening negotiations under Article 50 alters existing statutory obligations and responsibilities or compromises individual rights granted by statute. If it does, parliamentary assent will be required. Otherwise, it will not.
If the arguments against the government are successful and parliamentary assent is required at the outset, Parliament may be able to tie the Government’s hands in the negotiations – requiring it to commit to certain legal arrangements or instruments and demanding powers of oversight for parliamentary committees during the negotiations. If the challenge is unsuccessful, none of this will happen.
Image credit: Sebastian Galiano(CC-BY-SA-2.0)
But even if the court case comes out in favour of parliamentary assent, MPs will need to carefully consider that any demands imposed on the government from the outset will have to also be acceptable to its EU partners – parliamentary approval of Article 50 cannot lead to an open battle in Parliament with no consideration of the EU’s priorities and interests in finding a deal. After all, the Article 50 text and subsequent agreement of a UK-EU relationship will be negotiated between the UK government and the remaining EU countries, and the UK’s negotiation hand is already very weak in this game!
Moreover, all parties should keep in mind that the triggering of Article 50 is only the beginning of a longer process: actual withdrawal will require several steps, and parliamentary approval of the Article 50 text would no doubt influence the government’s current dilemma regarding how specific the Article 50 notification should be regarding subsequent negotiations.
Parliament therefore needs to prepare its tactics for both the short- and longer term objectives regarding Brexit – but also for the role and influence it wishes to embody beyond current Brexit dilemmas: what lies ahead will no doubt test the UK’s constitutional and legal frameworks to their limits.
Parliament’s role beyond Article 50
The important question of what role Parliament should play in overseeing negotiations after Article 50 has been triggered is also still to be determined. Ministers, including David Davis, have made clear that Parliament will be consulted and allowed to engage with the negotiations. Yet, the nature of that process and the degree to which Parliament will be involved pre- or post-fact is a matter of dispute. So far, the impression is one of a marginalised Parliament if the government gets its way – but again, this may change if the Supreme Court ruling confirms the judgment from last week.
Nevertheless, even if Parliament does get to play a more prominent role, there is very little precedent on which it can base its work regarding scrutinising UK-EU negotiations as the two Houses of Parliament do not normally play a role in scrutinising treaty negotiations and are usually just involved in the ratification of treaties. Lack of timely access to negotiating texts has been a perennial parliamentary complaint in previous EU treaty renegotiation episodes, and the UK parliament enjoys fewer scrutiny powers in EU affairs than many of the member states on the continent.
Yet, pressure is mounting on the government for including Parliament more closely in the actual negotiations, in particular as a decision has been made on the EU side regarding the European Parliament’s role in scrutinising the Brexit negotiations handled by the European Commission and the EU Council. But it is important to stress that parliamentary scrutiny is not a matter of absolutes: parliamentary involvement can come in several forms and degrees depending on the issue – and whether it is of a legislative nature or general oversight. In terms of volume, the overarching Parliamentary measures are likely to be relatively few: passage of the ‘Great Repeal Bill’ to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act; ratification of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement required by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union; and ratification of whatever UK-EU agreement or agreements may be reached to govern post-Brexit relations. The Article 50 text would be added to this list depending on the Supreme Court verdict.
Compared to these overarching measures, by far the bigger task will be transposing into domestic law all the EU law which currently has direct effect in the UK, and amending the body of UK legislation which gives effect to EU law so that it can stand independently. The planned ‘Great Repeal Bill’ may give only blanket authority for these tasks. Legislative amendments will also be required if there are to be policy changes made possible because the relevant policy area has been repatriated to the UK, although legally these changes could not be made before Brexit occurs.
Taken together, this body of work is widely regarded as the largest legislative task the UK Parliament has ever undertaken. The political and legal headaches caused by Brexit have only just begun.
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Note: This article originally appeared on UK in a Changing Europe and EUROPP, it gives the views of the author, not the position of LSE Brexit, nor of the LSE British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics.
Sara Hagemann is Assistant Professor at the European Institute and ESRC Senior Fellow for the UK in a Changing Europe. She has published extensively on European affairs, in particular on transparency and accountability in political systems, EU policy processes, EU treaty matters, the role of national parliaments, and the consequences of EU enlargements.
Odd that the political and legal headaches are being attributed to the decision to leave the EU, rather than to the earlier decisions which created the entanglements which now have to be unwound. For example, what would have happened if Major had done the right thing and allowed a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty, and the electorate had then rejected it, which would have been the likely outcome? We wouldn’t now have people complaining that if we leave the EU they will be deprived of their rights as EU citizens, a legal status established through that treaty, would we? Which rights were actually created by the UK government in agreement with the other governments, as formalised in that treaty, not by the UK Parliament as is being claimed; the role of the UK Parliament was simply to provide a conduit for those treaty rights agreed on the international plane to be transmitted into law on the UK domestic plane.
“At the core of the court’s decision will be a decision about whether simply opening negotiations under Article 50 alters existing statutory obligations and responsibilities or compromises individual rights granted by statute. If it does, parliamentary assent will be required. Otherwise, it will not.”
That depends upon whether the judges on the Supreme Court agree with the judges on the High Court that the European Union Referendum Act 2015 can be regarded as insufficient parliamentary authorisation of the government’s clearly stated intention to serve the Article 50 notice without any further parliamentary process in the event of a referendum vote to leave the EU. If Parliament is asked to pass a new Act to authorise the government to serve the Article 50 notice then in effect it will just be being asked to confirm its intentions when it passed the 2015 Act for the benefit of judges who choose to doubt what was obvious at the time.
I suggest that the biggest opportunity that Parliament has in the passage of the Article 50 Bill and the “Great Repeal Bill” is to provide for a referendum on the terms of Brexit.
The June result is real and must be respected. But Leave had no plan. So the direction on which the referendum set the country can only be provisional.
No-one takes a project from idea to implementation without a project review. At that review, not doing the project is an option. That is essentially a matter of good government.
Since we have gone down the referendum route it is for the electorate to hold that project review once there is a plan with benefits, costs and risks that can be assessed.
So Parliament should provide for a referendum 20 months after the Article 50 negotiation has gone in.
Facebook: Campaign for the Real Referendum – on the Terms of Brexit