Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger says judges will keep listening to European Court of Justice decisions post-Brexit
The president of the Supreme Court today said he and his peers will likely carry on listening to the European Court of Justice’s decisions following Brexit.
Lord Neuberger told the House of Lords Constitution Committee: “It would be quite inappropriate for us to be bound in any way by decisions of the Court of Justice after we leave the Union…On the other hand, if the UK courts have a point on the equivalent legislation here to the EU legislation on which the Court of Justice in Luxembourg had reached a conclusion, it would be silly for us not to look at what they’ve said.”
Neuberger added the UK’s judiciary regularly met European Court of Justice judges and he felt this “should continue for the time being”.
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“We will be making decisions in our courts on identically-worded legislation in the UK and it seems to me that it’s sensible to maintain contact with them to discuss matters of mutual interest for the benefit of people in this country and the people of the EU,” Neuberger said.
Meanwhile, Baroness Hale, deputy president of the Supreme Court, called for it to be spelled out in legislation what weight, if any, the English courts should be giving to decisions made in the European courts post-Brexit.
“That is not something we would like to make up for ourselves,” she said.
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A report published earlier this month by the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee warned Brexit may inadvertently throw businesses into legal chaos if the final deal contains no answers on how disagreements crossing European borders will be dealt with once the UK leaves the EU.
Hale and Neuberger have already had a very high-profile taste of Brexit as they both sat on the government’s appeal of the Article 50 case.
Neuberger today described the reception of the High Court decision from some corners as “inappropriate” and his court felt a degree of “dismay” at the reaction.
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The trio of High Court judges were called the “enemies of the people” by the Daily Mail after they ruled the government must seek the approval of parliament before it could trigger Article 50.