The EU has been in breach of its Treaty obligations to the UK for years

It promised to not have a Rule of Law Crisis - but learned EU academics and its own top Judge agree it instead has one

Yet the UK has done nothing
The lawyers who (wrongly) said the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was unlawful will find this difficult to explain

One side can give itself unilateral powers and the other cannot?

Your law goes bad when you surrender it to your politics
In case anyone wondered, "that's a nice business you got there, shame if anything were to happen to it" is not a principle of International Law
You may read about the Crisis here:

thecritic.co.uk/the-eu-rule-of…

And in my back catalogue at the Spectator - EU has admitted it!

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More from @SBarrettBar

Mar 16
I don't understand this as law

How can you have a vote on one aspect of it?

The Northern Ireland Protocol (as it is so let's call it v.1) is incorporated

You need a vote to incorporate the new one v.2 *if* it has changed

What are they voting on? Where is the Bill?
People will probably wave their hands and say 'oh oh, section 8C of the 2018 Act'

Let's ignore the fact section 8C doesn't require any vote and instead notice that while 8C gives broad powers to ministers, it doesn't contain a broad power to change the Protocol
And if you look specifically at s.8C (5A)(c)(ii)

Powers in relation to the Protocol are specifically constrained - only allowed to change Articles 5 and 10
Read 4 tweets
Mar 14
Honoured to be invited to the Legal Cheek Awards 2023 - always a treat

And chuffed to chat with the Attorney General @VictoriaPrentis who shares a passion for Social Mobility - doing brilliant work bringing young people Parliament

Selfie with @VFAnderson who got me on Twitter ImageImageImageImage
Thank you @legalcheek @barbri and BPP University Law School
It is great to see the @attorneygeneral engaging with the legal community - but specifically with young lawyers and young aspirant lawyers ImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Mar 14
There is a general lack of awareness of the EU action on migration

By passing power to something called Frontex, it is avoiding international law and human rights

This academic article is v helpful - "the EU can torture, kill, imprison and enslave"

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Whether you approve or don't approve of the UK action, or the EU action, is your personal political choice

But there is a distortion in understanding the law of what is happening if you only see (are only aware of) the UK
The authors @ProfKochenov and @SarahGanty are on Twitter

And @evegeddie is also one to follow if you want to learn what is happening

There is, I understand, a case in the ECJ - we will have to watch - but Frontex is live now - it is active today
Read 7 tweets
Feb 28
I have published my analysis of the proposed deal

It is not for me to endorse or condemn it. My role is to say what it does as law

As law, it empowers the EU to control a UK government of any kind and traps Northern Ireland outside the union

spectator.co.uk/article/is-ris…
Delighted to be invited on the telly to discuss this already

Happy to do media and flattered to be asked
And very happy to be straight in at number 2 on the most read

I write on law in a way that I hope is interesting - being read is a key test of that Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 27
Reading - I see 'cut and paste' have been busy

But the initial point is that this is not a deal and has no legally binding effect on the UK

The threat of the NI Protocol Bill has been withdrawn in order to secure what lawyers call an agreement to agree
gov.uk/government/pub…
Now law does not enforce agreements to agree

So it's not a deal and it can basically say anything - and mean nothing
I will try and salvage some sort of article based on whatever future laws might say

But as law - nothing has happened

Dampest of squibs
Read 4 tweets
Feb 26
I am grateful to @JohnRentoul for highlighting this error of law

It is mad fantasy to imagine that "out there" there is a court that can strike down Acts passed by the UK Parliament

No such court exists

Parliament is sovereign here and it will make whatever laws it makes
If Ministers are being advised otherwise then the Ministers are being falsely advised
If government lawyers believe this and and are advising ministers (including the Prime Minister) then it would be, as a matter of practicality, helpful to know that
Read 5 tweets

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