Posted on 08/14/2019 4:04:40 AM PDT by Steve1999
LONDON (Reuters) - A campaigner who wanted to prosecute British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for allegedly lying about the benefits of Brexit before the 2016 European Union referendum, has lost his bid to take the case to Britain’s top court, Sky News reported. Marcus Ball, 29, wanted to bring the crowdfunded private prosecution against Johnson for misconduct in public office over a claim emblazoned on his bright red “Leave” campaign bus that Britain would be 350 million pounds ($445 million) a week better off outside the EU.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
UKs top court says “no,” but the European court can over-ride UKs top court.
Strong argument to leave.
I thought privately funded prosecutions were legal in the UK? Why did this one get tossed? Were they afraid it would set a precedent and declare open season on pols?
This judgement was pronounced by the London High Court not by the “UK’s top court” which is the UK’s supreme court.
And no, the ECJ does not even entertain such ideas as yours — It is not possible to appeal against the decisions of national courts in the ECJ, but rather national courts refer questions of EU law to the ECJ. However, it is ultimately for the national court to apply the resulting interpretation to the facts of any given case.
Seems I’ve heard where the UK ruling on something is appealed to a higher authority outside the UK and that, by itself, proves the UK can be “ruled” by Europeans, not Brits.
There isn’t any such case - the european Court of Justice does not, however, have any power to strike down national law; this is a task for the national courts.
The UK is not “ruled” by Europeans, nor by European institutions.
Firstly - the UK as part of the EU is part of the various EU institutions:
1. remember Nigel Farage? He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament. He has been an MEP for years (he was first elected as MEP from the UKIP). The UK has 73 seats in the europarliament. This is analogous to the US congress in that seats are allocated as per population. No one European country dominates this - even Germany with 83 million is only little less than 20% of the population. Furthermore the euparliament parties form cross-country coalitions to get the parties ways.
2. the eu council is the council of heads of government, like Boris. It has veto powers. This is analogous to the US senate only where all the senators have to agree or nothing gets passed. This veto power would not work for a country, but the EU is a confederation of countries, so it works and it is better for the countries to agree unanimously in a confederation.
3. The eu commission is analogous to the civil service - each country proposes one member to the civil service.
4. the ecj is again - one member, one justice.
so the UK has never been “ruled” - the UK is part of those that rule the EU.
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