Skip to main content
News

A Bumper Edition of Updates – Newsletter

9th May 2018

To subscribe to our newsletter, please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Hello!

It’s been a while…but we’re still here. At the Good Law Project, we are busy redesigning our website and we promise to bring you more updates on the cases we’re currently working on. So in this bumper edition of updates, here is what we’ve been up to recently.    

Our success at the Divisional Court with our Electoral Commission challenge:

Back in March, the GLP was given permission by the Divisional Court to challenge the Electoral Commission’s regulation of EU Referendum and election spending. The case focuses on the last-minute ‘donations’ by Vote Leave just before the Referendum vote.

The full hearing is scheduled for 19th June 2018, and for a more detailed review of why the case is important, click here. Our crowdfunding page for this case can be accessed here.

…And another success, this time in Scotland:

In late March, we were granted permission for a judicial review into whether the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50. As you know, Article 50 was triggered last year and says that the UK will stop being a member of the EU by March 2019. We know that the UK can withdraw its notification with the permission of the other Member States, yet we don’t know whether it can revoke Article 50 unilaterally.

So a cross-party of seven Scottish politicians – supported by the GLP – sought a judicial review to get some clarity. Our application for a judicial review was originally refused in the Court of Session, but we appealed this decision, with a panel of judges saying that there was a “point of substance.” For a more detailed update, click here.   

Our crowdfunding page for this case can be found here. The proceedings has attracted a lot of attention in the national and regional press, and was covered by the BBC, Bloomberg, The Daily Record and The Herald.  

Secret Brexit Studies:

Last October, we wrote to the Chancellor and the Brexit Secretary asking for two types of document: the sectoral studies mentioned by David Davis to a Commons Select Committee, and a Treasury document that compared the predicted economic detriment of Brexit with the predicted economic benefits of alternative free trade agreements.

Through crowdfunding, we began judicial review proceedings. However, the Exiting the EU Select Committee later published a document, which summarises the information that we had sought. For our blog post on the case, see ‘We got what we came for.’

On the horizon:

We have an upcoming case involving some pretty horrific conflicts of interest in the NHS that could well damage care for the most vulnerable. So watch this space.

News from our director:

Our director, Jolyon Maugham QC, recently wrote a piece for the Guardian on UK nationals in the Netherlands trying to take a case to the European Court of Justice. Their case – supported by the GLP – centres on whether the shared assumption of the EU and the UK Government that Brexit will lead to the loss of EU citizenship for UK nationals living in the EU Member States is correct. For more detail about the case, see here.  

How can you help:

To help us keep up the good work, please, if you can, support us financially by becoming a member or making a one-off donation. Our only funding is from you.  

Thank-you,

The Good Law Project

@GoodLawProject