Maybe I'm just thick but I thought we had a referendum. The decision making process was given to the people by parliament. The people decided to leave the EU and it's now up to the Government to make this happen. I can't see how the Judiciary can then say it needs to go back before Parliament. This is the stated case from Mrs May, the Judiciary does not rule this country.
CH
There are a few simple truths as to how this has come about.
Firstly, whilst Parliament may make the law, it is not above the law. That's an important principle that we all should support.
Second, the decision making process was not "given to the people" in the referendum on 23rd June. The EU Referendum Act 2015 contained no provision for triggering Article 50 in the event of a vote to leave the EU. Much as we may like to think that the result of the Referendum was binding, the reality is that all we were asked to do was give our opinion on whether we should stay in or leave the EU. Of course politicians talked up the Referendum because it was in their interests to do so, just as they did the same with the Scottish Independence Referendum back in 2014. As nicowilson said earlier, if the intention had been to make the EU referendum binding then it should have been phrased as such. It wasn't, so who's fault was that??
Third, for the Government to legally enforce the result of the referendum requires it to place a Bill before Parliament. This is the point that the High Court made in their judgement last week. Why can't the Government use its powers of Royal prerogative - i.e. why can't the Government just "make this happen"? Because in their ruling the High Court said:
"An important aspect of the fundamental principle of Parliamentary sovereignty is that primary legislation is not subject to displacement by the Crown through the exercise of its prerogative powers."
Meaning that primary legislation is not covered by the Royal prerogative.
So it's not that the judiciary is saying that we can't leave the EU, only that to do so legally requires Parliament to pass a Bill because Parliament is sovereign. There was clear precedent for this, in that we joined the EEC through an Act of Parliament back in 1973. So to leave the EU also requires an Act of Parliament.
So the judiciary does not rule the country - but what it does do is adjudicate on whether the Government of the day is following due legal process in how it rules the country. In this case the Government wasn't.
If only the media spent less time vilifying the judiciary and more time explaining the facts!