Brexit: High Court ruling on Article 50 explained

In a landmark constitutional judgment handed down today, the High Court has put a stumbling block in the way of the Prime Minister's plan to trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017. Professor Kenneth Armstrong from the Centre for European Legal Studies goes through the ruling. For MPs and Lords, this is a chance to try and get the Government to reveal more of its Brexit negotiating position - Kenneth Armstrong "For some, today's ruling is a victory for parliamentary democracy. For others, unelected judges stand in the way of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. If the Supreme Court gets the final say, voters may still wonder whether their voice matters at all," says Kenneth Armstrong, Professor of European Law from Cambridge's CELS. For Armstrong, the key aspects of the judgment  are: It is impermissible for the Prime Minister to invoke the Royal Prerogative[i] as legal authority for a notification to be sent under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, to begin the process of withdrawing the UK from the EU. The effect of withdrawal will be to remove or limit the rights created by EU law and which are given effect in UK law via the European Communities Act 1972.