Good thread discussing today's CJEU judgment on data protection law and website cookies (though note the judgment is now available in English; see my previous tweet)
The Attorney General's piece is subtly but profoundly dishonest in its presentation of how EU law is adopted. At no point does she mention that the UK *government* had a vote on the adoption of EU legislation - usually in favour, in some cases with a veto. 1/
2/ Two straight falsehoods here. At least a qualified majority of Member States is necessary in order to pass EU legislation (this falsehood appears twice); and the European Parliament can remove the Commission.
3/ As an answer on an EU law exam, this would fail. For a practicing lawyer, misstatements on this scale might raise questions of competence and/or integrity for professional regulatory bodies.
But this person is the Attorney General of the United Kingdom.
The EU Council has agreed on a decision on operational coordination re external aspects of migration - data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/S…
The idea is to coordinate different aspects of EU reaction re migrants/refugees at the Belarus border. Frankly I think the legal basis here is dubious.
It implements the Council decision implementing the 'solidarity clause' in the treaties - eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…
The solidarity clause, Art 222 TFEU (eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…), is about reaction to "a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster"
One might argue that loss of life/living conditions on the Belarus border is a "man-made disaster", but the new decision does not explicitly set this out. Its focus is coordination of external aspects of migration, without referring back to the solidarity clause conditions.
The legal analysis in Sumption's first paragraph would be liable to receive a failing grade if it appeared in a first year undergraduate law essay. Simply put, he does not acknowledge the existence of excuses in the law of criminal damage, which were argued and put to the jury.
Sumption may believe that the excuses should not apply to the facts of this case, and should not have been put to the jury. Fair enough - but that point needs to be made, at least briefly. As it stands, he leaves the reader with a misleading impression of the law and this case.
This piece is, of course, not a law essay. But it nevertheless makes an assertion about the law and its application to this case. On my view it is highly inappropriate for a former judge to make such an assertion in a way which misleads the public about the law and this case.
The Home Office replies to @JolyonMaugham on the nationality bill to say that some comments have been misleading. Yes, but the Home Office makes *two* misleading statements of its own.
Novel point of asylum law - is a Member State responsible for an asylum application if it has issued a diplomatic card?
Summary of the background to this case - curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.…
Doesn't mention which country the asylum seekers are from, or which Member State issued them with a diplomatic card. But interesting questions on the intersection of diplomatic law and asylum law.
CJEU, new asylum case II
Is human rights protection for asylum seekers so deficient in Malta that Member States should not send asylum seekers back there under the Dublin system?
1/ On top of that, Habib's description of the TCA is full of falsehoods. The "level playing field" does *not* tie the UK to EU regulations: it provides that if either side reduces *its own* standards "in a manner affecting trade or investment", the other side can retaliate.
2/ In the absence of the TCA, the UK would not have that constraint - but it would also have less access to its largest export market, a point which Habib neglects to mention.
3/ As for tax cuts, the TCA "level playing field" provisions do not apply to tax rates in the first place. So they do *not* hinder the UK cutting any tax in any way. [tweet redone to correct typo]