Official blog of Swansea University's IISTL, where we keep you up to date with the latest maritime and commercial legal news.
Government loses challenge to article 50 CJEU reference.
The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union sought permission from the Supreme Court to appeal against the orders of the Inner House of the Court of Session dated 21 September and 3 October 2018 requesting the CJEU to give a ruling on the following question:
“Where, in accordance with article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, a member state has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, does EU law permit that notice to be revoked unilaterally by the notifying member state; and, if so, subject to what conditions and with what effect relative to the member state remaining within the European Union?”
Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to give permission to appeal. Under section 40 of the Court of Session Act 1988 the only basis for an appeal against the orders would be if they constituted “a decision constituting final judgment in any proceedings”. The order did not constitute a final judgment. Under art. 267 of the TFEU under which the preliminary ruling has been requested the purpose of the ruling is “to enable [the national court] to give judgment”. The preliminary ruling is merely a step in the proceedings pending before the national court which is the court which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision.
Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.
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