Following the Divisional Court decision in the case of Miller (finding that Parliament must authorise the triggering of Article 50) on 4 November 2016, almost 100 students, staff members, and members of the public gathered in Birmingham Law School a few days later to discuss the case and its implications.
The event started with an outline of the case and the decision of the Court from the Head of Birmingham Law School, Professor Robert Lee, following which four of the School’s specialists in public law, human rights, and comparative law held a Question and Answer session with the assembled group. These were Professor Fiona de Londras, Dr Adrian Hunt, Dr Natasa Mavronicola, and Mr Ben Warwick.
In the course of the wide-ranging discussion that followed, students asked questions about the potential impact of devolution matters on the Supreme Court appeal, the implications of the media reaction to the case for the Rule of Law, the key decision points in the case, and the revocability of Article 50—a key matter in the case.
This is the latest in the BLS activities relating to Brexit. Last year Prof. Martin Trybus, Dr Luca Rubini, and Prof. Graham Gee (now of Sheffield University) published a special issue of European Public Law on the potential implications of Brexit, and the Institute of European Law conference in June 2016 focused largely on the matter. The IEL has recently published a series of Working Papers drawing from that conference, and a schedule of events on Brexit for 2017 is currently under development.
Birmingham Law School has already done a large amount of work relating to Brexit.