The European Court of Justice (CJEU) is expected to deliver on Monday 10 December 2018 its ruling on whether the withdwal notification from the European Union can be unilaterally revoked (C-621/18 Wightman and others).
Legally sound narratives have been put forward for almost all possible outcomes: from finding that the referral is inadmissible because it is hypothetical or irrelevant through a strict reading and application of the criteria for admissibility of preliminary references, to the possibility for unilateral revocation, as proposed by Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona’s Opinionor indeed to a finding that the withdrawal notification cannot be revoked.
Given this I believe that in choosing one of the various plausible legal narratives the political censor of the CJEU not only will it be switched on but it will be so in its most sensitive configuration. The Court has shown in many occasions its ability to adapt and respond masterfully to contextual political exigencies (for example in the case of C-370/12 Pringle).
