10:57 a.m. ET, November 16, 2018
Can the UK withdraw its official notice to leave the EU?
The UK Supreme Court building
Rumbling on in the background to this week's Brexit drama has been a legal case related to Article 50, the section of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty that governs how member states can leave the bloc.
A cross-party group of remain-supporting lawmakers brought a case in the Scottish courts to seek a ruling on whether the UK government can, unilaterally, withdraw its notification to leave the EU. That notification, issued under Article 50, set in train a two-year countdown clock that expires at midnight, Brussels time, on March 29, 2019.
The UK government, defending the case in Scotland, argued that it did not have the legal right to unilaterally rescind the Article 50 notification.
Unexpectedly the Court of Session, Scotland's highest court, referred the case to European Court of Justice. The ECJ has scheduled a hearing for November 27, just two days after an emergency summit of European leaders at which they are expected to ratify the UK-EU withdrawal agreement.
In the meantime, the British government appealed to the UK Supreme Court, which in certain cases can overrule decisions by the top court in Scotland. Today, the Supreme Court said it would
decide whether it has the legal right to intervene.
Why this matters: It might seem curious that the British government would oppose a case that merely seeks to get legal clarity on Article 50. But the implications are clear – if the ECJ decides that the trigger for Brexit can be undone, remain-supporting lawmakers are sure to call on the government to do just that.
“The Court is aware of the urgency of this matter,” the UK’s Supreme Court said in a statement on the challenge.