Wednesday, February 11, 2015

John Helmer — The Illegality Of Sanctions – Uk High Court Sends Rosneft Claim To European Court


Britain loses sovereignty. David Cameron upset.
The UK High Court has rejected a lawsuit by Rosneft challenging the legality of sanctions against its oilfield operations and international financing. 
The court has ruled that for testing the legality of the sanctions British law and British courts are subordinate to the European Union, and that Rosneft must try its case in the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in Luxembourg. The ruling, which was issued on Monday, contradicts the judgement of the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest court, which decided last March that sanctions against the Iranian bank, Bank Mellat, had violated British law. The new judgement makes no reference to this or any other case decided recently in London on the illegality of UK Government sanctions.

The ruling by Lord Justice Sir Jack Beatson (lead image) and Justice Sir Nicholas Green also flies in the face of the British Government’s promise to preserve the primacy of the British courts over the EU judiciary, and keep London’s market dominance for global litigation. Acknowledging that the issue will be tested in the parliamentary election due in three months’ time, embattled Prime Minister David Cameron has claimed: “We want to make the Supreme Court supreme”. Cameron has promised to introduce a new Act of Parliament to establish the superior status in law of UK courts over the European Court.” That hasn’t happened.…
According to The Lawyer’s review last month of “the top 20 cases of 2015: global disputes in the English courts”, the first and most important is Rosneft’s sanctions challenge. “In the judicial review application to be heard at the end of this month Rosneft will argue that the delegated legislation introduced by the UK to implement the EU’s sanctions – as well as the underlying EU regulation – is unlawful…As well as being closely linked to an ongoing political crisis between Russia and the EU, the case examines questions over the Government’s obligations when implementing EU legislation.”
That’s shorthand for the politically explosive issue of whether the UK should stay in the European Union (EU), or call a national referendum and leave. Four British judges have now issued public calls condemning what they are calling the “export” of sovereignty. In December 2013, the retired Lord Chief Justice, Baron Igor Judge (right), declared: “we should beware of the danger of even an indirect importation of the slightest obligation on parliament to comply with the orders and directions of any court, let alone a foreign court.”
“Beatson and Green are no Wellingtons”, a British lawyer comments, referring to the Battle of Waterloo whose 200th anniversary will be celebrated in London in June. “This time the British have run from the battlefield. Napoleon finally wins.”
Dances with Bears
THE ILLEGALITY OF SANCTIONS – UK HIGH COURT SENDS ROSNEFT CLAIM TO EUROPEAN COURT
John Helmer

1 comment:

NeilW said...

Looks like a standard European Court referral on a matter of law to me.

They judge the law point in European law and it then returns to the national court for a final decision.

The intention is to create a Community wide precedent to settle the matter across the community.

It also bumps the cost up for the plaintiffs.

The conclusion in the article is a bit of spin really. This is normal procedure AFAICS.