The judgement from the High Court today was clear and now it is for the Government to respond.
Much will be made on what this means over the next few days but, for me, there are simply two issues here: Brexit supporters have to respect the judgement and the rule of law, while Remainers must respect the outcome of the Referendum.
Parliament and Government, with the help of the courts, now needs to quickly find a way forward to balance these two issues for the good of the country.
The High Court judgement is about how the government can carry out the decision of the referendum to leave the EU.
As the judges say, the judgement does not have any effect on the referendum decision. It deals with a specific legal point.
It has long been accepted that “the Crown” or the government cannot overturn an Act of Parliament – only Parliament can do so.
In this case, there is the 1972 European Communities Act which we will have to repeal in order to leave the EU.
The court has agreed that Parliament must do that, in keeping with hundreds of years of legal judgements in the UK.
There is no change in the position of the government, that we will leave the EU.
This case has no impact on the kind of deal we agree with the EU to determine our relationship after we leave.
You can read a two-page summary of the judgement, and the full decision itself (36 pages of it!) on the link below:
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/r-miller-v-secretary-of-state-for-exiting-the-european-union/