header-logo header-logo

A Scottish divorce?

09 November 2012 / Colin Munro
Issue: 7537 / Categories: Opinion , Public , Constitutional law
printer mail-detail

Colin Munro examines how we arrived at the referendum stage in Scotland and where we go after the vote

In the next two years, voters residing in Scotland will have the responsibility of deciding whether a union that has lasted over 300 years should continue. The alternative will be a (reasonably) amicable but necessarily complex divorce. The holding of a referendum on Scottish independence and some of its terms was the subject of an agreement between the British government and the Scottish administration, signed by the prime minister and Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, in Edinburgh on 15 October.

How has it come to this? The late Donald Dewar and other architects of the Scotland Act 1998 probably expected that parties supporting the union would always be in the majority in the Scottish Parliament, as did indeed come to pass from 1999 to 2011. However, voters may choose for all sorts of reasons, and constitutional questions may not be at the forefront. At the general election in 2011, the Scottish National Party (with

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll