A mere three centuries since the Treaty of Union and six years since the divisive and acrimonious Brexit vote, the bonds that hold the nations of the British Isles together look to be in jeopardy. Writing in this week’s NLJ, Marc Weller, Professor of International Law at Cambridge University, looks at the SNP mandate and Westminster’s attempt to block Holyrood, a hurdle easily cleared by the First Minister. Or was it?
Weller writes that it is ‘not clear whether the SNP could actually make good on its threat to press on regardless if it loses in the court.
‘If the Scottish government visibly departs from the framework of constitutional legality it has so unhesitatingly accepted, it empowers Westminster to oppose any further moves. No 10 would claim to defend the law, rather than obstructing the legitimate wishes of the population of Scotland.
‘Edinburgh would lose the one key thing it needs—a consensual process towards independence that would allow other states to recognize it and to approve EU membership.’
