On 10th September I posted on this blog a bare assertion that the United Kingdom could not lawfully leave the European Union before September 2020.
See
The United Kingdom cannot leave the European Union before September 2020
In this post I will put a little flesh on the bones of that assertion and give access to a Briefing Paper that seeks to explain in terms of Public International Law, European Union Law and UK domestic Law why it is that the UK cannot lawfully leave the EU before September 2020.
The Briefing Paper is intended to be intelligible to both lawyers and non-lawyers. I have tried to pitch the content to both audiences.
Basically, I reject the prevailing interpretation of the timetable for UKExit, since that is based on the "simplistic interpretation" of Article 50 TEU.
I argue that to find the "correct interpretation" of the UKExit timetable one has to interpret Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in a wider context, as required by Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969.
When one finds the "correct interpretation" of Article 50 TEU, one can see that a "No Deal" UKExit is only lawfully possible when the UK makes a conscious choice to leave without a lawful Withdrawal Agreement and gives 12 months notice of that intention.
A disorderly, last-minute "No Deal" UKExit is not lawfully possible.
The current Brexit melodrama on the (erroneous) assumption that the UK can leave the EU on 31st October 2019 is merely the current manifestation of The Brexit Farce that has been underway since David Cameron made his spectacularly stupid Bloomberg speech on 23rd January 2013:
EU speech at Bloomberg
The Briefing Paper in which I explain why the UK cannot leave the European Union before September 2020 is available online here:
Briefing Paper No.2: The United Kingdom cannot lawfully leave the European Union before September 2020
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