Lady Hale's lecture 'The Supreme Court: Guardian of the Constitution?'
A response to reactions to Lady Hale's explanation of the Article 50 'Brexit' case
15 November 2016
In response to some commentators' reactions to Lady Hale's recent lecture on 'The Supreme Court: Guardian of the Constitution?' given in Malaysia last week, a Supreme Court spokesman said:
"Lady Hale was simply presenting the arguments from both sides of the Article 50 appeal in an impartial way for an audience of law students, as part of a wider lecture on constitutional law. It is entirely proper for serving judges to set out the arguments in high profile cases to help public understanding of the legal issues, as long as it is done in an even-handed way.
"One of the questions raised in these proceedings is what form of legislation would be necessary for Parliament to be able to lawfully trigger Article 50, if the government loses its appeal. A number of politicians have raised the same question. Though it was not dealt with explicitly in the High Court judgment, it is not a new issue. In no way was Lady Hale offering a view on what the likely outcome might be."