§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his statement of 16 September,Official Report, column 794, when it became Government policy that all international treaties take primacy over national law; and on what evidence he bases the statement that under the draft constitutional treaty for the first time provision is made whereby Parliament can legislate to repudiate a treaty. [131821]
§ Mr. MacShaneIt is an established principle of international law that a state may not plead its national law to escape its international law obligations, including its treaty obligations. As a matter of UK constitutional law, international treaties have effect in UK national law to the extent that they have been implemented in national law.
Article I–59 of the draft EU Constitutional Treaty states that any member state may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional 340W requirements. The Government believe it is highly unlikely that any member state would wish to withdraw, but sees a case for stating the political and legal reality of what would happen in such exceptional circumstances.