‘We acknowledge the unprecedented nature of the task of converting existing EU law into UK law. But as it stands this Bill is constitutionally unacceptable’, says Baroness Taylor of Bolton on the Lords Constitution Committee’s report (pdf), in January 2018.
Ahead of the second reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill in the Upper House, the Select Committee on the Constitution have published a report calling on the Government to amend the Bill.
The report finds:
- The Bill is not clear exactly what retained EU law will contain; it potentially captures laws that do not need to be saved and creates duplicate copies of laws that have already been transposed into domestic law
- The Bill fails to give sufficient clarity and guidance to the courts as to how to go about the task of interpreting retained EU law after the UK leaves the European Union
- The Bill also seeks, unsuccessfully and erroneously, to perpetuate the “supremacy” of EU law post-Brexit.
