The White Paper on the Great Repeal Bill: Invasion of the Parliamentary Control Snatchers

Professor Steve Peers

Yesterday’s White Paper for the forthcoming Great Repeal Bill outlines the key elements of the domestic law aspects of the process of the UK leaving the EU. It indicates broadly how the future proposal for a Bill will do two main things: (a) convert existing EU law applied in the UK to UK law including, in some cases, law of the devolved bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland); and (b) provide for a process of amending ex-EU law in future.

While the White Paper has thought some issues through in detail, there are some key points on which it is either vague or unconvincing (or both). In particular, it contains no real detail or substantiated argument on the most important issue: the power of the executive to amend laws without an Act of Parliament.

Converting EU law

The White Paper confirms that the UK will continue to apply EU law until Brexit Day – which will be March 29, 2019, unless (a) the EU/UK withdrawal agreement specifies otherwise, or (b) the EU and UK agree to extend this date, or (c) the UK rescinds its notification to withdraw from the EU (if that is legally possible). It also confirms the intention to remove the European Communities Act – the main Act of Parliament that gives effect to EU membership in UK law – as of that date.

But it seeks to retain in force the EU rules which apply in the UK as of that date, subject to amendments (as discussed below).  The EU rules in question are directly-applicable Regulations and EU Treaty provisions, as well as Directives which were already transposed into UK law by using the European Communities Act. Also, the Treaties will remain relevant for the interpretation of ex-EU legislation which was initially based on them (para 2.10).

What about the EU courts? Here the White Paper draws a distinction. On the one hand, post-Brexit laws will not be subject to the jurisdiction of the EU Court, and the UK’s courts will not be obliged to take ECJ rulings into account (presumably they could choose to do so, however). On the other hand, ex-EU laws will still have to be interpreted by reference to pre-Brexit case law of the EU courts, to ensure certainty. There’s no reference to post-Brexit case law, but again presumably the UK courts could choose to consider it.

The latter rule will not be absolute, however: pre-Brexit ECJ case law will have the same binding effect as UK Supreme Court judgments, and so the Supreme Court could overrule those judgments in the same limited circumstances in which it can (and rarely does) overrule itself. It will of course be possible for Parliament to overturn ECJ case law by amending the legislation, and the government hints that it might want to consider clarifying the circumstances in which the Supreme Court could overturn prior ECJ rulings.

A similar distinction arises as regards the supremacy of EU law: the EU court rule that EU law takes precedence over any conflicting national law, so the latter has to be disapplied by national courts in the event of any conflict. The supremacy rule will not apply to post-Brexit UK legislation, but it will still apply to pre-Brexit UK laws that conflict with ex-EU law.

Despite the general conversion of EU law, the White Paper insists on an exception for the EU Charter of Rights.  In that case, the ex-EU legislation will be interpreted after Brexit by the ‘rights underlying’ the Charter (ie the ECHR and other international treaties which the UK has signed), rather than the Charter itself.

Amending ex-EU law

Obviously the body of ‘ex-EU’ law will not remain unchanged forever. The White Paper discusses the process by which it can be changed in future. There are two key issues here. First, will any changes be the responsibility of the Westminster Parliament or government, or the parliaments and executives of the devolved bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? Secondly, within Westminster, what changes will be subject to Acts of Parliament, and what will be subject to delegated powers conferred upon the executive?

On the first point, the White Paper is vague about exactly what powers will be exercised by the devolved administrations, and this is likely to be a highly contested issue in practice.

On the second point, the distinction between Acts of Parliament and executive powers is important because an Act of Parliament allows for extensive public discussion and parliamentary scrutiny, whereas an act of the executive (usually in the form of 'Statutory Instruments') is subject to limited public or parliamentary involvement. For instance, there is far less time for discussion, and no prospect of tabling amendments.

The White Paper starts by mentioning some possible delegated powers for the Great Repeal Bill that will surely be uncontroversial. For instance, it refers to the references in ex-EU law to 'EU law', powers of the EU institutions, or information sharing with the EU. Since most of these references will be redundant (except possibly as regards continued sharing of police information, as the White Paper notes), there are limited policy choices to be made when replacing them. So there can be little objection in principle to the executive using such powers.

However, there is a further category of changes to EU law which will be more substantive. The White Paper gives a non-exhaustive list of cases where the government thinks it should have delegated powers: where a policy might change in light of the Brexit talks with the EU; where a policy changes as a direct consequence of leaving the EU; and where the level of detail is 'not appropriate' for an Act of Parliament. 

More generally, the government argues that these powers must be widely defined and must apply not only to ex-EU law converted into EU law, but also Acts of Parliament linked to EU membership. The power for the executive to amend Acts of Parliament is controversial, and such clauses are widely known as 'Henry VIII clauses'. Although the House of Lords Constitution Committee had previously argued that there should be extra powers of parliamentary scrutiny in this context, the government implicitly rejects this view. 

Comments

The overall objective of ensuring legal continuity by retaining pre-Brexit EU law in force is logical, and the White Paper has thought many of the details through. It makes sense to ensure that legal continuity as much as possible by creating a distinct body of ex-EU law, where a form of the principle of supremacy still applies and ECJ judgments remain binding, subject to the rare case that the UK Supreme Court might want to overturn.

However, some of the detail has not been considered: what about future ECJ case law? What about cases concerning EU law in the UK pending in the UK courts or the EU courts on Brexit Day? What if a condition of ensuring market access to the EU after Brexit is to take relevant EU court case law ‘into account’? (Note that this falls short of making those judgments binding, and is even an even longer way from retaining the supremacy of EU law over national law). What about the domestic legal impact of any alternative court or dispute settlement system that might rule on UK/EU disputes after Brexit?

The hostility to the EU Charter forms an exception to the rule that prior EU law continues to apply, and raises much legal uncertainty. Does it also mean that ECJ rulings referring to the Charter should be ignored, at least to the extent that they refer to the Charter? Since many such rulings refer to other EU laws and interpret them in light of the Charter, there will in effect be an odd requirement to keep following part of a ruling but not all of it. But this will be like trying to remove an egg from an omelette, because the judicial reasoning on the Charter and the EU legislation is intertwined.  

To some extent, this effect will be limited by the requirement to interpret the ex-EU law in light of the ‘underlying rights’ instead of the Charter. But what does this mean in light of the government’s intention to repeal the Human Rights Act, and replace it with a British Bill of Rights? What if the ECJ’s interpretation of the Charter was arguably more ambitious in a particular case than the relevant ‘underlying rights’ in the Charter? What if the relevant ‘underlying rights’ are set out in a human rights treaty which the UK has not ratified, or not made part of its domestic law? And there is no mention of the pre-Charter case law of the ECJ on human rights as ‘general principles of law’; what happens then?

Moving on to the amendment process, the White Paper’s initial examples of very technical changes to ex-EU laws that the government might wish to make are frankly misleading. For the White Paper then goes on to refer to a non-exhaustive list of broad discretionary powers which the government wants to make changes to the statute book in light of talks with the EU, to make consequential changes to policies or to fill in details of laws.

As drafted, these powers are potentially nearly limitless. They could, for instance, be used to adopt every detail of future policies on agriculture, fisheries, trade with non-EU countries or extradition to the EU without full parliamentary scrutiny or public discussion, because each of these are areas where the new laws could be regarded as changes consequential to leaving the EU. 

So how should Parliament limit government powers? It will be hard to avoid conferring some substantive delegated powers on the government, as the time frame to implement a Brexit agreement with the EU (or the absence of one) before the likely Brexit Day of March 29, 2019 might be tight. On the other hand, there might be several months to spare, or there might be a transitional agreement keeping EU law in force for some time, so giving Parliament more time to act.

The best way forward is to rule certain issues off-limits entirely, particularly issues where EU law provides for essentially domestic legal harmonisation: for instance employment law, environmental law, consumer law, discrimination law. In those areas there is generally no reason why the law necessarily has to change if the UK leaves the EU, because the relevant laws are not usually about cross-border matters. (There are exceptions, like European Works Councils or carbon trading laws).

In other substantive areas, where there is a direct link with leaving the EU, Parliament should be given a right to rule on whether the conditions for conferring delegated powers on the government are met. Effectively it could decide whether the trigger for those powers had to be pulled due to lack of time or not. (Thanks to Professor Tammy Hervey for a version of this idea). There could be particular limits on the power of the executive to amend Acts of Parliament.

Also, the government could be pressed to make more effort to table Acts of Parliament well in advance of Brexit Day on the planned changes to some key areas, for instance agriculture and fisheries, to enable full parliamentary scrutiny. In particular, the planned customs bill could include rules setting out the domestic legal framework for UK’s post-Brexit international trade law (more on that specific issue another time).  

Finally, on the issue of devolved assemblies, it is striking that the Brexit Minister’s foreword to the White Paper talks generally about a “significant increase in the decision-making power” of the devolved bodies, but the actual White Paper then does not give any detail of this. On the other hand it does go into some detail about the powers which can’t be conferred upon devolved assemblies, due to an intention to ensure a UK-wide single market.

Maybe we need a short, simple phrase to refer to the promise of devolved powers which is not then substantiated by any detail. Might I suggest…“the Vow”.

Barnard & Peers: chapter 27

Photo credit: BBC

Who exactly will ‘take back control’? Parliament vs executive after Brexit and the ‘Great Repeal Bill’

Steve Peers

A key issue in the Brexit referendum campaign was the case for British democracy: that rules applying to the UK should be adopted by the UK parliament (or, as the case may be, devolved bodies and local governments; I’ll come back to devolution issues in a later blog post). But since the referendum result, it’s striking that many on the Leave side seem reluctant to give Parliament much of a role in practice. Having made a strong case for Parliament to make decisions affecting the British people, they suddenly find this argument less compelling when contemplating that Parliament might make decisions that they may not agree with. A bit like St. Augustine, they pray for the virtues of parliamentary sovereignty – but not yet.

While a lot of debate has focussed on whether Parliament should have a role in triggering Article 50 (the clause on the process of UK withdrawal from the EU), that’s actually one of four related issues: Who should trigger Article 50? Who should determine the form of Brexit? How accountable should the Brexit negotiations be? And who should control what happens after Brexit?  I’ll discuss each of these issues in turn, including a broader analysis of the ‘Great Repeal Bill’ just announced by the government as part of the fourth point.

1 Who should trigger Article 50?

As many readers will know, there are pending court cases on this issue. It’s clear that the referendum itself is not legally binding, since unlike previous cases like the 2011 referendum on voting rules, the European Union Referendum Act 2015 does not specify what happens in the event of a vote to Leave.  The government made a political promise to implement the result, but that is not a legal obligation.

The core legal argument is whether the official notification that the UK will withdraw from the EU is governed by the ‘Royal Prerogative’, which gives the UK executive the power to negotiate treaties and conduct foreign relations, or subject to Parliamentary approval, since Brexit will inevitably impact upon the European Communities Act (which is the main law giving effect to EU law in the UK) and other UK statutes. You can find the skeleton arguments tabled by both sides here; and see Mark Elliot’s analysis of the government’s pleadings.

Whatever view the courts finally take of the law, there’s an overwhelming political argument that Parliament ought to decide, given the huge impact upon the laws of the United Kingdom. If it comes to this, I don’t expect many MPs would actually vote to block Brexit, since the majority of UK constituencies voted to Leave, and they will be concerned about their re-election chances. Moreover, many of them likely believe it would be politically illegitimate not to respect the result of the referendum. Frankly, it’s unfortunate that many Remain supporters are unwilling to accept this political reality, and expend their energy on overturning the result, rather than engaging in a constructive debate about the least bad form of Brexit. Time to face facts: Bobby Ewing will not be back from the dead in your shower tomorrow morning.

So the more significant impact of any parliamentary vote on Brexit would be its potential impact on the next issue: who should decide what form of Brexit to take?

2 Who should determine the form of Brexit?

A majority of votes were cast to ‘Leave’ the EU. No other question was on the ballot paper. Various arguments were made in favour of Leaving the EU, some of them contradictory (ie from opposite sides of the political spectrum). It’s sometimes asserted that the Leave vote is a mandate to reduce immigration from the EU and to withdraw from the free movement of people to this end, but at least some senior Brexiteers used to argue that it is not a mandate to this effect.

So while the vote is a political mandate to leave the EU, it’s not a mandate for any particular form of leaving the EU. For instance, if the UK sought to leave the EU and retain membership in the European Economic Area (EEA), in order to keep full participation in the EU’s single market, at least on an interim basis (as discussed here) this would in no way contradict the referendum result. EEA members like Norway are not members of the EU, and do not participate in many aspects of EU law: fisheries, taxation, trade with non-EU countries, agriculture, the single currency, and many more.

Of course, some people object to the idea of the UK staying in the EEA. But they need to base their arguments on the perceived flaws of the EEA – and, if they are intellectually honest, on the comparative perceived strengths of any other form of Brexit. The argument that the British public ‘voted against staying in the single market’ is quite simply false.

This brings us to the question of who should make the final decision on what form of Brexit to pursue: the UK parliament or the executive? (Not forgetting, of course, that the EU side must also agree to the terms). The question of whether to stay in the single market has a huge impact upon the UK economy (see, for instance, the estimates of the Institute of Fiscal Studies on this point: Brexit on the basis only of participating as a WTO member would shrink the economy 4% as compared to staying in the single market). Moreover, it will have a huge impact on British law. Refusing to let parliament decide this issue is incompatible with its underlying role.

Of course, I would expect the executive to draft a proposed motion for Parliament to approve. But if Parliament is only willing to approve that motion subject to amendments, the executive should consider itself politically bound by the amended motion.  I’m not suggesting that Parliament should get the power to agree every word in the text of future UK/EU treaties before negotiations start, as if those treaties were Acts of Parliament. But it should have the power to approve the main thrust of the government’s negotiating position. If Parliament votes that the UK ought to negotiate to remain a full participant in the single market, the government must consider itself bound by that result. A clear statement of the government’s negotiation objectives, approved by Parliament, would also supply a degree of legal certainty to those doing business in or investing in the UK.

Some are concerned that Parliament would be tying the government’s hands too much, since there is a risk that some aspect of the government’s negotiating position will be unattainable. In such a case, the government could come back to Parliament and ask it to revise the motion, or failing that, to explain its inability to achieve all those negotiation objectives when it comes time for Parliament to approve post-Brexit treaties.  And that point brings us neatly to the process of negotiating and approving those treaties.

3 How accountable should the Brexit negotiations be?

Usually, it’s an executive power to negotiate international treaties. Parliament is involved at the end, if it’s necessary to amend an Act of Parliament, or adopt a new one, to give effect to a treaty. Since 2010, it also has the ability in effect to block the government’s ratification of a treaty, under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. The government has made clear its unwillingness to be accountable during the negotiations, arguing that it will not be giving a ‘running commentary’.

However, there are important reasons why the Brexit talks should not be regarded as any ordinary treaty negotiation. Firstly, as noted already, EU law has a huge effect on UK law; it follows that Brexit will do also. Refusing to disclose any information to Parliament in that process would be to divest it (and public opinion) of any effective role in the debate about the negotiations.

In fact, there’s a relevant precedent for a bigger role for Parliament. Due to the important role of EU law in UK law, the House of Lords and House of Commons already have Scrutiny Committees examining the government’s negotiation of draft EU laws. In particular, the government reports back regularly to the latter committee on how negotiations over important EU laws are going. One might almost call it a ‘running commentary’.

Secondly, there’s a particular well-known feature of the Brexit negotiation process: the two-year deadline that applies once Article 50 is triggered. This means that Parliament does not face the ordinary choice between approving a treaty or the status quo; rather the choice will be between leaving the EU on the Brexit terms negotiated by the government and leaving the EU without any terms at all, which will also cause major transitional problems. For instance, would the UK have to release from prison, or refrain from arresting, fugitives who were the subject of a European Arrest Warrant issued by an EU Member State on Brexit Day?

Thirdly, there is no reason for secrecy on ‘negotiation tactics’ grounds once a text has been tabled to the other side. In effect, those cards are on the table already. On the other hand, it would damage the UK’s negotiation position to release notes which give the government’s fallback position: those cards are still face down. There will, inevitably, be some embarrassment if the UK government doesn’t obtain its initial negotiation position. But this is normal in any treaty negotiation, and the government simply has to prepare public opinion for this.

Fourthly, it would be odd if the UK parliament had any less a role than the European Parliament, which not only (like the UK Parliament) has to approve any final Brexit deal, but must be ‘immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure’ (Article 218 TFEU). As a recent post on this blog pointed out, there is EU case law clarifying these rights, as well as a ‘closed door’ procedure for MEPs to review texts.

4         Who should control what happens after Brexit?

This issue has come to the fore with the government’s announcement of a ‘Great Repeal Bill’, to replace the European Communities Act. First of all, some general points about this Bill. It won’t take effect until Brexit Day, so the UK will still be in compliance with its EU law obligations beforehand.  An interesting point is how the Act will deal with any EU laws adopted after it obtains Royal Assent, but before Brexit Day: logically, it should at least cover those which fall due for the UK to apply in the meantime. (My thanks to Graham Smith for raising this point).

Secondly, despite the title, the Act won’t actually repeal any substantive EU law, but just the opposite: it will keep all pre-Brexit EU law in force in the UK. But it’s not therefore a meaningless gesture, as some have suggested, as it will do several things: a) prevent post-Brexit EU law from applying to the UK; b) limit the legal effect of EU law in the UK’s legal systems (ie, EU law would presumably no longer have primacy over all other national laws in principle); and c) remove the role of the EU courts in interpreting that law. This raises some key questions: would the UK want a legal mechanism for adapting easily to post-Brexit EU laws that it wishes to apply? What would be the impact of pre-Brexit, and post-Brexit, case law of the CJEU on interpreting this law? How will the UK match the EU regulatory bodies referred to in EU legislation?  Despite those questions, though, the plan for the Bill does offer a great degree of legal certainty, as businesses and others know that there will not suddenly be a legislative vacuum as regards a big chunk of the law on intellectual property, data protection, environmental protection, and so on.

Thirdly, there are two other things that the ‘Great Repeal Act’ won’t do: a) it won’t affect EU laws that form part of UK law due to other statutes (such as the Extradition Act), although they will equally stay in force in much the same way as the EU law preserved by the Repeal Act; and b) it won’t bind the European Union (or, where relevant, non-EU states). Any EU law kept in force in UK form which relates to trade with the EU, or other UK relations with the EU (recognition of judgments, or return of asylum-seekers, for instance) will only have practical effect to the extent that the UK and the EU have reached an agreement to this effect.

Fourthly – and this is my main focus for now – the ‘Great Repeal Act’ will set out a process for repealing or amending that EU law retained by that Act as and when the UK wishes to do so. The key issue here is: will the government decide that, or Parliament? The government’s announcement makes clear that it wants Parliament to confer power upon it to make at least some of the decisions on repealing EU law.

Let’s be clear what’s at stake here. Acts of Parliament need to be approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, following a process of several readings where there is a chance for public input and amendments. In comparison, ‘secondary legislation’ adopted by government (usually in the form of ‘Statutory Instruments’ or ‘Orders in Council’) cannot usually be amended by Parliament, and there’s little time for public discussion or parliamentary scrutiny that could influence amendments. Either of the two Houses of Parliament could veto draft secondary legislation, but this is rare.

Secondary legislation is used in other fields, and it was very frequently used to give effect to EU law in the UK.  So what’s the problem using it for repealing EU law? First of all, the very fact that secondary legislation was used so much to put EU law into place was a problem. It removed Parliament from having the role it would usually have over the adoption of the substantive laws in question. That was indeed one reason why Eurosceptics were critical of the EU for years. So using secondary legislation to overturn or amend those EU laws doesn’t solve that problem: it continues, even exacerbates it. Remember, as noted above, that the government’s negotiation of EU laws was always scrutinised by Parliament; this ameliorated the impact of the big transfer of power to the executive. But in principle, there would be no such mechanism to ameliorate the executive power to repeal EU laws after Brexit – unless a new form of parliamentary control of secondary legislation, involving some form of effective scrutiny and amendment, were developed.

Some might argue that the EU origin of these laws is inherently tainted, and so therefore a fast-track procedure to repeal them is justified. That argument is based on a fatuous misunderstanding of EU law propagated during the referendum campaign: that the UK is the passive recipient of laws adopted by ‘unelected bureaucrats’. In fact, as I pointed out in detail here, EU laws are adopted by elected ministers of Member States and elected Members of the European Parliament, and the UK government voted for them a huge majority of the time.  

Secondly, the government may well seek the power not only to fast-track repeal of EU laws which apply in the form of secondary legislation, but also those which are implemented by means of Acts of Parliament. Such powers are known as ‘Henry VIII clauses’, and are particularly controversial because they effectively overturn the role of parliament that led to the adoption of those Acts in the first place. In my view, such clauses should be rejected for the post-Brexit process as a matter of principle. If an EU law issue was deemed important enough while the UK was a member to enshrine in an Act of Parliament, it should be for Parliament to repeal or amend it.

On the other hand, it is probably not feasible to entirely rule out the use of secondary law-making to amend or repeal existing secondary legislation derived from EU membership. But Parliament should not give the government a blank cheque, for the reasons explained above. Rather, such powers should be subject to strict limits, either by means of a positive list (‘secondary legislation is only allowed in the following areas’) or a negative list (‘secondary legislation is allowed, except for the following areas’). In either case, there should be a ‘carve out’ for laws on workers’ rights and the environment, given their particular importance, as well as other issues where Parliament usually plays the main role.  

Conclusions

There’s no plausible argument that we need to destroy parliamentary democracy in order to save it. The Leave side argued for British parliamentary supremacy – not for ‘handing back control’ to our ‘unelected bureaucrats’. Parliamentary sovereignty doesn’t need fair-weather friends: it needs supporters who will take the opportunity of Brexit to strengthen it for reasons of principle, not undermine it for reasons of tactical advantage.

Photo credit: RadioTimes