Trigger for Article 50 Notification, a Thought Experiment
Nicolas Petit
Professor of Competition Law and Head of Law Department at European University Institute
Here's a thought experiment to understand my yesterday proposal that the EU could use Article 7 of the Treaty to prompt an Article 50 notification by the UK government.
Assume David Cameron is a Putin- type autocrat who has been in power for the past 5 years.
Pressured by the public opinion, Cameron throws a referendum on a proposed bill that would cement his clout on a range of independent administrations, press organizations and the judiciary.
A majority of the UK people votes against.
Cameron nevertheless moves forward, and introduces the contested bill in Parliament.
In this variant, the EU would not think much prior to launching Article 7 proceedings for breach of the democratic process.
This despite the fact that the measures in discussion concern internal constitutional issues of the UK.
So here's the question: should the respect for democracy mentioned in Article 2 be understood differently, depending on the the political party in power?
In my view, the answer is no.
Partner, Ashurst LLP
8 年Presumably the answer would depend at least to some extent (a) whether the referendum was legally binding or advisory only and (b) whether the bill was actually voted through by the democratically elected and sovereign parliament.
EU and UK Competition / Antitrust Partner at Arnold & Porter
8 年Interesting. Apply the analysis to the following facts: The Scottish Paliament calls an independence reference without agreement from Westminster. Overwhelming majority for independence. Should the EU use Article 2 to force Westminster to recognise the result? Could it use the same to make other member states do likewise? The answer, I suspect will be political, not legal.