How Brexit Has Unleashed a U.K. Constitutional Crisis

Is Britain facing a constitutional crisis? Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s brutal battle with lawmakers over Britain’s plan to leave the European Union has led the country into uncharted waters. Along the way, the U.K.’s highest court overturned Johnson’s suspension of Parliament, political norms are being tested and even the Queen has been dragged in. There are more fights ahead over where power resides and how it may be exercised in a country governed by a mass of unwritten rules heaped up over centuries.

Both Johnson and his opponents in Parliament argue they’re carrying out the will of the electorate who voted in 2016 to leave the 28-nation bloc. The Prime Minister has vowed to exit the EU on Oct. 31 whether or not a transition agreement has been reached with Brussels, but a so-called “no-deal” divorce could plunge the country into chaos. Parliament has voted repeatedly to prevent that from happening. Yet, even though his party no longer commands a majority of seats in the House of Commons, Johnson has hinted he might ignore Parliament and bolt from from the EU anyway.