Why Brexit’s Detour Through Parliament Matters: QuickTake Q&A

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was hoping to bypass Parliament on when and how to trigger divorce proceedings with the European Union. Then the Supreme Court set her straight. So lawmakers are discussing, for the first time formally, a short bill that would grant her permission to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. At stake is whether May will meet her self-imposed deadline for starting talks by March 31 and if she’ll have a free hand to negotiate as she wants.

The 137-word draft law has cleared the House of Commons unscathed but suffered a setback in the House of Lords. The Labour and Liberal Democrat opposition parties united with rebels among May’s Conservatives to support an amendment that would protect the rights of EU citizens to stay in Britain when the country leaves the bloc.