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EU constitution: the battlegrounds

British citizens will be given the right to vote in a referendum on the draft EU constitution after a U-turn by the Government. These are the most politically controversial parts of the document which will become prominent in a referendum campaign.

Supremacy of EU law over UK law

The constitution states explicitly for the first time in a treaty agreed by the UK that EU law takes precedence over UK law.

Defenders of the constitution say this is just an explicit statement of what is already the practice, with the European Court of Justice already ruling that EU law is supreme over national laws.

However, opponents insist that it would make it impossible for the UK to challenge the supremacy of the EU in future,…

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