C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
E650450
Court of Justice of the European Union judgment
landmark EU law case
preliminary ruling procedure case
C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is a landmark Court of Justice of the European Union judgment that clarified that a Member State may unilaterally revoke its notification to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 TEU, provided the revocation is unequivocal and follows constitutional requirements.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7232457 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Context triple: [Article 50 TEU, interpretedInCase, C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union]
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A.
R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is a landmark 2017 UK Supreme Court case that held the government must obtain parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50 to leave the European Union.
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B.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is a key UK law that provided the legal framework for leaving the EU by repealing the European Communities Act 1972 and converting existing EU law into domestic legislation.
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C.
Joint Committee under the Withdrawal Agreement
The Joint Committee under the Withdrawal Agreement is a UK–EU governance body responsible for overseeing and implementing the terms of the Brexit withdrawal deal and resolving related disputes.
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D.
Brexit
Brexit is the process by which the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union, reshaping its political and economic relationship with Europe.
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E.
Withdrawal Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union
The Withdrawal Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union is the legally binding treaty that set out the terms of the UK's orderly departure from the EU, covering issues such as citizens' rights, the financial settlement, and transition arrangements.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Target entity description: C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is a landmark Court of Justice of the European Union judgment that clarified that a Member State may unilaterally revoke its notification to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 TEU, provided the revocation is unequivocal and follows constitutional requirements.
-
A.
R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is a landmark 2017 UK Supreme Court case that held the government must obtain parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50 to leave the European Union.
-
B.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is a key UK law that provided the legal framework for leaving the EU by repealing the European Communities Act 1972 and converting existing EU law into domestic legislation.
-
C.
R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd
R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd is a landmark UK constitutional law case in which the House of Lords affirmed the supremacy of European Community law over conflicting domestic legislation and allowed for the suspension of an Act of Parliament.
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D.
Joint Committee under the Withdrawal Agreement
The Joint Committee under the Withdrawal Agreement is a UK–EU governance body responsible for overseeing and implementing the terms of the Brexit withdrawal deal and resolving related disputes.
-
E.
Brexit
Brexit is the process by which the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union, reshaping its political and economic relationship with Europe.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Court of Justice of the European Union judgment
ⓘ
landmark EU law case ⓘ preliminary ruling procedure case ⓘ |
| applicants | Andy Wightman and Others ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
EU constitutional law
ⓘ
EU institutional law ⓘ |
| caseNumber | C-621/18 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| chamber | Full Court NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| citation | Case C-621/18, Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, EU:C:2018:999 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| clarifiedConcept |
nature of Article 50 TEU notification
ⓘ
reversibility of the decision to withdraw from the EU ⓘ rights of a Member State during withdrawal process ⓘ |
| conditionForRevocation |
revocation must be decided in accordance with the Member State’s constitutional requirements
ⓘ
revocation must be notified in writing to the European Council ⓘ revocation must be unequivocal and unconditional ⓘ |
| context |
Brexit
ⓘ
United Kingdom’s notification under Article 50 TEU on 29 March 2017 ⓘ |
| court | Court of Justice of the European Union NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2018-12-10 ⓘ |
| defendant | Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ECLI | ECLI:EU:C:2018:999 ⓘ |
| effect |
confirmed that a valid revocation results in the Member State remaining in the EU on unchanged terms
ⓘ
influenced constitutional and political debates in the United Kingdom ⓘ |
| importance |
clarified legal options available to the UK Parliament during Brexit process
ⓘ
established that revocation does not require consent of other Member States ⓘ |
| interpretationMethod |
reference to Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
ⓘ
systematic interpretation of EU Treaties ⓘ teleological interpretation of Article 50 TEU ⓘ |
| keyHolding | A Member State may unilaterally revoke its notification of intention to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 TEU ⓘ |
| languageOfProceedings | English ⓘ |
| legalBasis |
Article 267 TFEU
ⓘ
Article 50 TEU ⓘ |
| memberStateConcerned | United Kingdom NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originatingJurisdiction | Court of Session, Inner House, Scotland NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| partyRole | United Kingdom as notifying Member State under Article 50 TEU NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| principleInvoked |
principle of sincere cooperation
ⓘ
right of a Member State to remain in the European Union ⓘ sovereignty of Member States to determine whether to withdraw from the EU ⓘ |
| procedureType | preliminary reference under Article 267 TFEU ⓘ |
| questionReferred | whether a Member State can unilaterally revoke its Article 50 TEU notification ⓘ |
| relatedInstrument |
Treaty on European Union
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union NERFINISHED ⓘ Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| shortName | Wightman NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
revocation of Article 50 TEU notification
ⓘ
withdrawal of a Member State from the European Union ⓘ |
| temporalScope |
revocation possible as long as the two-year period in Article 50(3) TEU, as extended, has not expired
ⓘ
revocation possible as long as withdrawal agreement has not entered into force ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Description of subject: C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is a landmark Court of Justice of the European Union judgment that clarified that a Member State may unilaterally revoke its notification to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 TEU, provided the revocation is unequivocal and follows constitutional requirements.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Article 50 TEU
→
interpretedInCase
→
C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
ⓘ