After a nine-month hiatus, Brexit is now underway. On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Theresa May sent the European Council President Donald Tusk a letter notifying the European Council of the UK’s intention to withdraw from the European Union in terms of Article 50(2) TEU. The very next day, Theresa May’s Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis u …
1. What were your thoughts when you first heard of the result of the referendum? It was not an unexpected result. Last week my prediction was 53:47. I wrote to someone early this week saying that in light of the pause of the campaign after the murder of Jo Cox MP it might be more like 51.8:48.2. And yet I was still shocked and became more so as it sank in. 2.
In the debate that has followed Mattias Kumm’s bold and provocative assertion that the European Council is under a legal duty to nominate Jean-Claude Juncker for the presidency of the European Commission, there is probably a good measure of philosophical disagreement being played out. Like all such disagreements there can be reasonable grounds for taking opposing positions on w …
Speculation over the nominee for the next President of the European Commission has been rife in newspapers, media and the blogosphere. In the face of such uncertainty, it might be reassuring to believe that, as Mattias Kumm asserts, there is an actual legal duty to appoint a particular candidate. No such luck.
