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Lord Doherty giving his opinion in the prorogation case now...
Lord Doherty says power to prorogue Parliament is justiciable in some circumstances, but not in others. All about context; court can’t measure “high policy and political matters” against legal standards”
Lord Doherty says this case is a case of “high policy and political judgement” which can’t be measured against the law. It’s up to the electorate and parliament to judge that. He says “there has been no contravention of the rule of law”.
So the petitioners look to have lost this phase - Lord Doherty says it’s “not for the courts to decide further restraints on prorogation which go beyond those which parliament provides”. He says this is enough to settle the case for him, but he knows it will likely be appealed.
Lord Doherty also backs UK govt arguments on other points; he says “prorogation does not render” parliamentary process “futile”. He says fact parliament won’t be sitting “does not in itself have an effect on individuals’ EU law rights”
After a brief row about expenses, that’s us from the Court of Session for the day. Imagine we’ll be back for an appeal from the respondents in short order though.
Petitioners are in the process of lodging their appeal already - and are hoping it might be heard in the Inner House as soon as this afternoon
Here's Lord Doherty's full opinion from this morning - will be a hearing this afternoon on whether petitioners can lodge an immediate appeal: scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-s…
