Belfast Court to Rule Thursday on Brexit Peace-Plan Case

(Bloomberg) -- A judge in Belfast will rule Thursday on the latest legal attempt to block a no-deal Brexit.

Raymond McCord, whose son was killed in the political violence that dogged Northern Ireland for decades, is trying to get the court in Belfast to declare that leaving the European Union without a deal would breach the peace deal known as the Good Friday Agreement. EU membership allowed for an open border on the island of Ireland -- a key element of the peace accord -- and a no-deal exit could put that at risk.

The U.K. government contends that a no-deal Brexit is the default outcome of the Article 50 process for a state leaving the EU, and so cannot be legally blocked.

Judge Bernard McCloskey said he would deliver his verdict Thursday. Whichever side loses will almost certainly appeal, with the case set to be heard with similar claims at the U.K. Supreme Court next week.

McCloskey said the court of appeal will sit all weekend to consider the cases if necessary.

There have been several legal attempts to block Prime Minister Boris Johnson from suspending Parliament -- which occurred Monday evening -- and leaving the EU without an agreement on Oct. 31.

Attorney Jolyon Maugham, who already has a challenge in the Scottish courts to Johnson’s suspension of Parliament, is waiting for an Edinburgh appeal court to rule on whether the suspension is unlawful, one of a number of lawsuits that are set to end up in front of the U.K.’s Supreme Court next week.

On Monday, a London court ruled out an early legal challenge to ensure that Johnson abides by a law requiring a delay to a no-deal Brexit, calling the claim “entirely hypothetical.” Liberty, a British human-rights group, had applied for a judicial review after one of Johnson’s ministers criticized the law that would extend the Brexit deadline. But the court said that the application for “urgent consideration” had no merit.

The government bill requiring Johnson to ask the European Union to delay Brexit on Oct. 19 was attacked by ministers over the weekend. It became law on Monday after an alliance of Conservative rebels and opposition lawmakers pushed it through before Parliament’s suspension.

To contact the reporters on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.net;Anthony Aarons in London at aaarons@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser, Peter Chapman

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