A crowdfunded legal action to determine whether Brexit can be reversed will begin in Ireland later this month, the lawyer leading the case has announced.

Jolyon Maugham QC, a tax lawyer at Devereux Chambers, will today (13 January) issue a letter before action, ahead of proceedings in the Irish High Court.

The lawsuit seeks a referral to the European Court of Justice to rule on whether the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50, which starts a two-year deadline for an EU member to complete its withdrawal from the political bloc, without the consent of the other 27 EU states.

"It would give the UK power to reject the outcome of Article 50 negotiations and remain in the EU, should the Brexit negotiations… yield a deal that was not acceptable to the UK parliament or British voters," Maugham said in a statement. "Without this ruling, Britain will be forced to take whatever deal [the government] emerges with, or leave [the EU] with no deal on a range of crucial economic and social issues."

Lawyers acting for the UK government have said that once Article 50 has been triggered, the exit process is irreversible, but some EU leaders have said that Britain would be able to change its mind.

Maugham has raised £70,000 from public donors to finance the legal action, in which he says several UK politicians will act as plaintiffs.

This is not the first time Maugham has turned to crowdfunding – he previously raised more than £10,000 to pay for legal advice from public law experts on the Article 50 process.

The UK Supreme Court is set to deliver its judgment in a separate legal case over whether Prime Minister Theresa May has the power to start Brexit without wider parliamentary approval. The government appealed a landmark High Court ruling that parliament must be allowed to vote on the triggering of Article 50.

One of the lead claimant lawyers in the historic lawsuit told The American Lawyer at the end of the Supreme Court hearing that he was "confident" of victory, and it was recently reported that senior government figures are preparing for defeat and expect the High Court ruling to be upheld.