#Brexit: The Legal Arguments

Below are the URL web links to the written arguments submitted by the various parties in the forthcoming appeal by the UK Government against the High Court's decision on 3rd November 2016 that the Government (represented by the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU) does not have the power to use the Royal Prerogative to serve an Article 50 notification to the European Council without the express legislative consent of Parliament.The forthcoming hearing at the Supreme Court (scheduled for the 5th to the 8th of December 2016 inclusive) will not simply be a re-run of November's High Court hearing, the judgement of which is the subject of the appeal by the UK Government at the Supreme Court.  This is as the Supreme Court has granted permission for a number of parties to 'intervene' or to join the case being heard next month.  Specifically,

• The Lord Advocate on behalf of the Scottish Government;
• The Counsel General for Wales on behalf of the Welsh Government;
• The 'Expat Interveners', George Birnie and Others represented by Henderson Chambers; and,
• The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain.

Separately, the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland has made a reference to the Supreme Court to adjudicate on certain issues of devolved law as it relates to Northern Ireland arising from the High Court of Northern Ireland's judgement of 28 October 2016 rejecting two requests for a judicial review of the UK Government's intent to trigger Article 50 (McCord’s (Raymond) Application [2016] NIQB 85).  As such, the Northern Ireland A-G has an automatic right of standing before the Supreme Court and did not require to be granted permission to intervene.The written arguments (briefs) are published below.  These provide the Supreme Court Justices with each party's 'road maps' for their Oral arguments to be made at the December hearing, and allow the Justices to familiarise themselves with the salient points of each argument.

Secretary of State for Exiting the EU (Appellant):https://www.gov.uk/…/Supreme_Court_Printed_Case_of_the_Secr…Gina Miller, first respondent:https://www.mishcon.com/…/Miller_Written_Case_signed_24.11.…Deir Dos Santos, second respondent:http://www.edwincoe.com/…/Dos-Santos-v-SoSExEU-Written-Case…Lord Advocate (on behalf of Scottish government), (Intervener):http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00510602.pdfCounsel General for Wales (on behalf of the Welsh government), (Intervener):http://gov.wales/docs/dfm/minutes/cabinet/161125counselgeneralforwalesprintedcaseen.pdf 

The written cases from the IGWU and the 'Expat Interveners' have yet to be published.

In a related development on 25th November 2016, the Court granted permission for Lawyers for Britain Limited, a group of lawyers, retired judges and other interested parties who campaigned for a Leave vote in June's Referendum to file written submissions (they will not address the court orally during the hearing).  Whilst, two applications from 4A Law and the New Europeans civic organisation acting on behalf of UK resident EU nationals were both refused permission to file written submissions.

Unlike other courts in the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court routinely web casts its hearings from its website at https://www.supremecourt.uk/index.html. Further details and timings of each party's oral submissions to the Court, again, to follow shortly.