Tearing up EU Treaties
There is much comment around at the moment about the apparent assertion from Conservative MPs that Parliament could scrap EU Treaties, with some suggestion that some didn't know what they were voting for when they supported the policy. It would surprise me if they didn't know because the argument has been doing the rounds for some years. Ironically the biggest supporter is the fishing lobby, who might be about to suffer from a change in the Conservative policy to withdraw from the Common Fisheries Policy.
The argument is that EU legislation and treaties are enshrined in UK Law through acts of Parliament; a major facet of our Parliament is that an Act of Parliament cannot bind its successors. This means that a future Parliament has the right to legislate to reform and change any past Act. Therefore, in order to withdraw from a Treaty, all that Parliament would have to do is amend the Act that enshrined it into Law.
The thinking behind this makes lots of sense, the reaction of the EU if we were to do it is perhaps one of the things that would need to be thought through. Whether we care about that reaction is another.
The argument is that EU legislation and treaties are enshrined in UK Law through acts of Parliament; a major facet of our Parliament is that an Act of Parliament cannot bind its successors. This means that a future Parliament has the right to legislate to reform and change any past Act. Therefore, in order to withdraw from a Treaty, all that Parliament would have to do is amend the Act that enshrined it into Law.
The thinking behind this makes lots of sense, the reaction of the EU if we were to do it is perhaps one of the things that would need to be thought through. Whether we care about that reaction is another.
posted by Martin Curtis at 12:58 PM
2 Comments:
Section 1 of the European Communities Act empowers the courts to apply EU legislation without further enactment. In the past the courts have ruled that it trumps subsequent legislation (because it gives effect to the Crown's assent to a treaty) and so your position would leave people in an impossible position. You can, of course, repeal the ECA - ie leave the EU. Indeed, as a Labour supporter I hope you commit to that policy because it would be electoral suicide.
But don't pretend you can be a member of a club and ignore the rules. You cannot. You either are a member of the EU or you are not.
Leave the EU, electoral suicide??
I have never heard those words in the same sentence. I don't think the EU is that popular.
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