LONDON — The case is considered the most important constitutional matter in a generation: Can Prime Minister Theresa May start negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union without an act of Parliament?
Financial entrepreneur Gina Miller’s lawsuit against the government seeks to answer this as well as much bigger questions about where power lies in this nation’s democracy and whether rights can be revoked without a vote of lawmakers.
May says the June 23 referendum on EU membership gave her a mandate to take Britain out of the 28-nation bloc and that discussing the details of her strategy with Parliament would weaken the government’s negotiating position. May has announced plans to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty, starting talks on Britain’s future relationship with the single market, by the end of March.
The lawsuit, hearings on which begin Thursday at the High Court in London, could derail those plans. But Miller, who supported the campaign to stay in the EU, says the case isn’t about blocking Brexit — a British exit from the EU — or keeping Britain in the bloc.
“It’s about democracy,” she said. “To my mind, the most dangerous precedent we’d be setting is that a government can overrule Parliament and not consult it when we are making decisions about people’s rights. And that to me is a very, very dangerous place.”
Andrew Blick, an expert on the Magna Carta at King’s College London, said the case involves an argument that dates back almost 400 years to the English Civil War as to whether power ultimately rests in the executive or Parliament.
“It’s a long, long running dispute,” he said. “It goes back to the clash between the king and the representatives of the subjects. This is just another installment of it.”
Underscoring the importance of the case, May put Attorney General Jeremy Wright in charge of the legal team fighting the suit. That announcement was made with a flourish at the recent Conservative Party conference as May underscored she would “make a success” of taking the country out of the EU.
Wright argues the suit is an attempt to put a legal obstacle in the way of enacting the referendum result.
“There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door, and no second referendum,” he said in a statement. “We do not believe this case has legal merit. The result should be respected and the government intends to do just that.”
