LEGAL LEANINGS EXCLUSIVE: First draft Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill leaked

Legal Leanings can today exclusively reveal the content of the first draft of the Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill, the coalition bill aimed at restoring freedoms and civil liberties of British citizens.

Readers will recall that the Bill was alluded to in the Queen’s speech, when Her Majesty said that “legislation will be brought forward to restore freedoms and civil liberties through the abolition of identity cards and repeal of unnecessary laws.”

Having typeset the text of the Bill leaked thus far, this Legal Leanings author can say with some conviction that the Bill is still in a very early drafting stage.

However, it appears as though the government have merged the prospective legislation with the proposed European Communities (Amendment) Referendum Lock Bill, and maintains the spirit of the Conservatives’ originally-proposed Sovereignty Bill:

A

BILL

TO

Restore historic freedoms and civil liberties to citizens; to restore British sovereignty over freedoms and civil liberties; and for connected purposes.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1?Freedom (Great Repeals)

(1)?The European Communities Act 1972 is hereby repealed.

2?Short title, commencement and extent

(1)?This Act may be cited as?the Freedom (Great Repeal) Act 2010.

(2)?This Act comes into force on the day on which it is passed.

(3)?This Act extends to Northern Ireland.

It may be a dream for many people, but the above Bill, if ever passed through Parliament, would restore sovereignty to Parliament, and repeal more than just one Act of Parliament.

Section 2(1) of the European Communities Act 1972 states:

All such rights, powers, liabilities, obligations and restrictions from time to time created or arising by or under the Treaties, and all such remedies and procedures from time to time provided for by or under the Treaties, as in accordance with the Treaties are without further enactment to be given legal effect or used in the United Kingdom shall be recognised and available in law, and be enforced, allowed and followed accordingly; and the expression ?enforceable Community right? and similar expressions shall be read as referring to one to which this subsection applies.

If the legislation were to be repealed, not only would the one Act no longer be applicable in the English Legal System, but lost too would be great swathes of EU Treaties and Directives, as well as common law from the European courts.

In short, almost 40 years of lawmaking by unelected European?bureaucrats,?restricting British freedoms and chipping away at British Parliamentary sovereignty, would be undone in less than 40 days!

Of course, it wouldn’t be quite that simple, and there would need to be repeals of subsequent amending legislation as well, but in essence the above is all that is needed to restore British freedoms.