Interpretation and effect of retained EU Law Section 6: Role of courts New section 6C EUWA: Interventions on retained case law by law officers
Section 6(8) inserts a new section 6C into EUWA, which confers on the law officers of the UK Government and devolved administrations a right to intervene in proceedings before a higher court. It applies the same definitions of law officers as new section 6B. New section 6C(1) provides for the right to intervene to apply where a higher court is considering any arguments that the court depart from retained case law.
	In a similar way to the reference power in new section 6B, law officers may exercise the intervention power on behalf of their respective Governments in cases where other ministers have a particular view as to the meaning and effect of a relevant piece of REUL, and it is expected that law officers and ministers would agree this approach in the usual way.
	New section 6C(2) and (3) require that the law officers are given notice of such proceedings and, on giving notice to the court, are entitled to be joined as a party to the proceedings. Under new section 6C(3), the intervention rights of law officers of the devolved administrations apply only where the arguments relate to the meaning or effect of relevant Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland legislation. New section 6C(5) applies the definition of such legislation set out in new section 6B.
	New section 6C(4) provides that notice of an intention to join the proceedings may be provided to the court by a law officer at any time during the proceedings.
	Subsection (9) of section 6 adds an entry to the Table in EUWA in section 21(1) (index of defined expressions), to include "Higher court". This reflects the definition of "higher court" inserted into section 6(7) of EUWA by section 6(7) of the Act.
	Subsection (10) of section 6 inserts a new subsection (10) into section 60A of the Competition Act 1998. Section 60A makes provision permitting courts, tribunals and other authorities to depart from retained case law and principles of EU law when exercising their competition law functions, and sets out the factors to be taken into consideration when doing so. The new subsection (10) provides that the provisions of section 6(2) to (6) of EUWA (as modified by section 6) on courts and tribunals following or departing from retained case law do not apply in place of the more specific provisions in section 60A.