The House of Commons of the UK Parliament [official websites] completed its first reading of HC Bill 132 [text, PDF] on Thursday in accordance with Article 50 [text] of the Lisbon Treaty, which would empower the prime minister to trigger Brexit. This development follows the UK Supreme Court’s [official website] ruling [JURIST report] on Tuesday that the parliament must vote before the Brexit process can begin. Prime Minister Theresa May [official website] has further promised that she will begin the process of removing UK from the EU by March. The bill has the backing of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn [official website], who stated [FT report] that he will “force his colleagues [members of parliament] to vote for the Article 50 bill through a strict “three-line whip.” The bill is scheduled to go before the House of Lords by the week beginning February 20, following which, it will be submitted for royal assent assuming that the upper house approves the bill. The targeted date of submission for royal assent is March 13.

A majority of UK voters expressed their desire to leave the EU [JURIST report] in June, leading to the resignation of former prime minster David Cameron. The EU has set out a mechanism for leaving in Article 50, where a member state “may decide to withdraw from the union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements,” and “must notify the European council of its intention.” Under Article 50, a member country can only be removed from the EU two years after notification. While Britain might bypass this process through repeal of the European Communities Act of 1972, it is believed that this would make coming to a preferential trade agreement with the EU more difficult.