06 July 2016
Brexit and Art. 50: the Key lies in Luxembourg
A large British law firm has announced legal steps to ensure that the Art. 50 TEU procedure leading to EUV will be triggered by the British parliament. This might lead to a referral to the European Court of Justice. Continue reading >>
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29 June 2016
Sovereign and misinformed: Brexit as an exercise in democracy?
Rather than criticising the Brexit referendum as a decision-making tool because ‘the people’ don’t have the necessary expertise to take decisions of this magnitude, we should question the conditions in which many UK voters were called to express their opinion. They, like many all over the world, have seen the progressive hollowing-out of those basic rights that make voting the expression of the right to individual and collective self-rule in the first place. Continue reading >>27 June 2016
A Disunited Kingdom: two Nations in, two Nations out
The United Kingdom is not a centralised state. It is a ‘family of nations’. There is a strong case for arguing that the referendum carries only if a majority of voters in all four nations respectively give their backing. England and Wales voted to leave, but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Recognising that split is not a matter of shifting the goalposts after the fact. It is about respecting an established, indeed a compelling constitutional order. Continue reading >>
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26 June 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to LAURENT PECH
Middlesex Law Professor Laurent Pech on the limits if not perils of direct democracy when citizens to are asked to decide complex policy choices in the absence of a clear understanding of the available options and potential consequences of their vote. Continue reading >>25 June 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to NTINA TZOUVALA
Young international law scholar Ntina Tzouvala on the difference between the "will of the people" and a manouevre of the political elite, and on the danger for Europe to carry around a constitutional corpse. Continue reading >>
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25 June 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to KENNETH ARMSTRONG
... and five very succinct answers by Cambridge EU law professor Kenneth Armstrong, Continue reading >>
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24 June 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to JO SHAW
Edinburgh EU citizenship law expert Jo Shaw's answers to my set of questions on the occasion of the Brexit referendum. Continue reading >>
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24 June 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to GERTRUDE LÜBBE-WOLFF
Former Constitutional Court Judge Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff on why she deeply regrets to see the British go, on the reversibility of the Brexit decision, and on an independent Scotland's prospects to continued EU membership. Continue reading >>
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16 June 2016
Britain’s Neverendum on Europe
The UK Prime Minister has told us that the June 23rd vote will settle ‘once and for all’ Britain’s vexed relationship with Europe. I wouldn’t count on it. The current marathon is only beginning. The upcoming referendum has all the hallmarks of a ‘neverendum’: a campaign that tries to resolve an issue yet only succeeds in polarizing opinion yet further, guaranteeing its presence on the political agenda for years, if not decades, to come. Continue reading >>
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16 June 2016