UK's Brexit Cannot Pass Without Parliament Approval (aljazeera.com)

Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU, the High Court ruled on Thursday. This means the government cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty -- beginning formal exit-negotiations with the EU on its own. An anonymous reader shares a report on AlJazeera: The UK's High Court has ruled that Theresa May's administration is not allowed to trigger the country's exit from the European Union, or Brexit, without approval from parliament. Three senior judges ruled on Thursday that "the government does not have the power under the Crown's prerogative" to start EU exit talks. The case is considered the most important constitutional matter in a generation. The government plans to appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court. Plans for Brexit are being challenged in a case with major constitutional implications, hinging on the balance of power between parliament and the government. May has said she will launch exit negotiations with the EU by March 31.

Comments

Re:Huh who knew?

[serviscope_minor]

You mean unilaterally overturn legislation that the populous voted that they want overturned?

Yes. That's sort of the point of a legal system. You can't just shit over the laws simply because you really really really want to.

"The people" apparently want it and now it has to go through parliament just like any other law "the people" really really really want.

On the plus side this means the PM might have to awnser tricky questions like, oh I don't know, "what's your plan", and you know hold things up until a plan. The brexit vote simply means as we are told, brexit. It doesn't mean exit instantly with no plan at all.

Re:POWAR TO THE PEOPLE!

[TheRaven64]

Please stop repeating this. Democracy and republic are completely orthogonal terms. A democracy is a state in which the people[1] hold power (either via directly voting on issues in a direct democracy, or by electing representatives in a representative democracy), a republic is one in which the head of state is not selected by the hereditary principle. The US is a democratic republic, the UK is a democratic constitutional monarchy (but not a republic).

[1] Literally, 'the city', which in the case of the UK is a bit more true than we'd like: has far too much power.