The Opinion of Lord Pentland in the petition of Jolyon Maughan

In The Opinion of Lord Pentland in the petition of Jolyon Maughan [2019] CSOH 80 (18 October 2019) the Scottish Court of Session refused the petitioner’s motion insofar as it sought interim orders to suspend the agreement reached between the UK and the EU for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The petitioner sought an interim order suspending the ‘purported agreement’ between the UK government and the EU on the basis that this agreement provided for Northern Ireland to form part of a separate customs territory to Great Britain. He contended that the Protocol sought to create ‘an overlapping Venn diagram’ in which Northern Ireland would be at one and the same time both a part of the customs territory of the UK and a part of the customs territory of the EU. By contrast the island of...