Mark Elliott, Jack Williams and Alison Young (eds), The UK Constitution after Miller: Brexit and Beyond

Author
DOI10.3366/elr.2019.0565
Published date01 May 2019
Date01 May 2019
Pages293-295

The Supreme Court's decision in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5, [2018] AC 61 will be remembered as one of the most high profile decisions in the court's history. This excellent book opens with a substantial chapter laying out the background of the “Miller Tale”. Reviewing this precis of the case, one is reminded of the swiftness with which the Supreme Court was able to produce its judgment; the case was heard over four days beginning on 5 December 2016, with the judgment handed down on 24 January 2017. The court must be congratulated for engaging as deeply as it did with the relevant issues in such a short space of time. However, the judgment is not a paragon of clarity and the present volume makes a significant attempt to clarify many of the apparent inconsistencies within the decision.

The contributions take Miller as the starting point to discuss a number of fundamental constitutional issues which arise from the case. Broadly speaking, the contributions can be divided into those which deal with: (i) the prerogative power to enter into and withdraw from international treaty obligations; (ii) the nature of EU law within the UK constitution; (iii) the nature of judicial control of executive actions; and (iv) the court's analysis of the Sewel Convention.

The space provided for this review cannot possibly allow one to do justice to the depth of analysis contained...

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