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UK Supreme Court says Brexit case about law, not wider politics

UK govt has appealed to SC after High Court ruled last month that Article 50 could not be triggered without lawmakers' assent.

London: The president of the UK Supreme Court said on Monday a landmark case to decide whether the government could trigger the formal divorce process from the European Union without parliament's approval was a matter of law and not wider politics.

Prime Minister Theresa May's government has appealed to the country's highest judicial body after the High Court ruled last month that ministers could not trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and begin a two-year Brexit process without lawmakers' assent.

If the Supreme Court upholds the earlier ruling, that could derail May's planned timetable for invoking Article 50 by the end of March and upset the government's wider Brexit plans.

The legal fight comes against a backdrop of claims by some politicians and newspapers that establishment judges want to thwart the Brexit process. In his opening remarks Supreme Court President David Neuberger said the case was simply about the law.

"We are aware of the strong feelings associated with the many wider political questions surrounding the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union," Neuberger said. "However, those wider political questions are not the subject of this appeal.

"This appeal is concerned with legal issues and, as judges, our duty is to consider those issues impartially, and to decide the case according to the law. This is what we shall do."

Neuberger said all parties involved in the case had been asked if they wanted any of the court's justices to stand down and no objections had been raised.

Launching the case for the government, Britain's Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the case had been brought "perfectly properly".

"It raises issues going to the very heart of our constitutional settlement," he told the court.

Outside the Supreme Court, located on the same central London square as parliament, pro-EU supporters wearing judges' robes and wigs rode a double-decker bus emblazoned with slogans, while another van carried a billboard that read "The Brexiteers have failed us all".

A small number of rival Brexit backers waved placards saying, "This is an establishment stitch up".

( Source : reuters )
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