The United Kingdom is now free, goes the proud claim. It’s free and independent from the entanglements of the European Union, its treaties and its laws and regulations. Sovereignty has been regained. Control can be taken back

But wait a minute. What exactly is this sovereignty? And precisely who has taken back control?

The lawyers have a clear legal answer to the first question. Sovereignty means supreme legitimate authority over a defined region, state or nation. Only that authority can make the laws, and in the U.K.'s case, these laws are from now on unquestionably superior over the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union.