Sir David Edward gives May short shrift over ECJ stance

A former judge of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said Theresa May’s promise to remove the UK from the court’s jurisdiction after Brexit “shows just how ignorant she is”.

Sir David Edward, who was a judge at the court for 12 years, told Business Insider that the Prime Minister’s plans revealed how little she understands of the workings of the court.

“To end UK jurisdiction is simply to say we are not going to obey EU law anymore. Well, this is fine, as long as British business chooses to operate entirely inside the UK,” Sir David said.

He added: “If a business manufacturing goods in the UK wants to export goods to the EU, as hundreds of them do, then those goods must comply with EU standards. As a practical matter, if you’re manufacturing wedding cakes, for example, and you have to comply with EU food standards, you don’t want to have to create two sets of wedding cake. You want to create one set to come off the production line so the cakes can be consumed both in the UK and the EU.

“In that sense, the EU law will continue to apply in the sense that people will have to obey it. We cannot escape the jurisdiction of the ECJ.”

Sir David also said the government does not fully understand the purpose of the court.

“What it has is the jurisdiction to answer questions regarding the interpretation and application of EU law. In so far as the UK is bound by EU law, then the ECJ interpretation is binding on the UK. Correspondingly, UK courts that seek to know what the correct law is can put the question to the ECJ. The ECJ doesn’t have any other jurisdiction in the UK other than to answer questions put to it by UK courts.”

He added: “They use expressions like the ECJ can ‘enforce’ EU law or can ‘direct’ the UK — but it can’t do any such thing. All it can do is say what the law is. The great thing about EU law is it doesn’t have any police and enforcement is entirely by consent.”​