Thursday, September 19, 2019

Brexit in the UK Supreme Court

At the start of the first day’s hearing, the Court's President, Lady Hale, presented the issue before the court in two appeals, one from Scotland (Cherry v Advocate General of Scotland) and the other from England (Miller v The Prime Minister) which addressed the same question: whether it was lawful for the Prime Minister to advise Her Majesty to authorise the prorogation of Parliament by Order in Council.
Since the answer to the question given by senior judges in Scotland was not the same as that given by those in England, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, sitting for this purpose in a formation of 11 of the 12 justices of the Court, must decide the question.
The Court makes available videos of hearings on its website. You can see Tuesday morning’s here, Tuesday afternoon’s here. Presumably, Wednesday’s will be posted soon. Livestreaming of Thursday’s session will be found here.
Although watching all three days proceedings (sometimes described as 'slow-moving') might be reserved for passionate students of the Brexit question, more casual observers can still enjoy listening to how the very best legal minds talk about the question.
The BBC's legal correspondent, Clive Coleman, has a simple presentation of the matter you can watch below.