Category: Devolution
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Stephen Tierney: The Lord Advocate’s Reference: Referendums and Constitutional Convention
On 11-12 October the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a reference brought by the Lord Advocate under the Scotland Act 1998, Schedule 6, para.34 (‘the Reference’). The Lord Advocate seeks determination of the following questions: Does the provision of the proposed Scottish Independence Referendum Bill that provides that the question to be asked in…
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Thomas Horsley and Jo Hunt: In Praise of Cooperation and Consensus under the Territorial Constitution: The Second Report of the House of Lords Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee
On 16 July 2022, the House of Lords Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee (CFSC) issued its Second Report on the Common Frameworks. This post summarises the Report’s principal findings and reflects on the future role of the Common Frameworks in the management of domestic intergovernmental relations post-Brexit. Common Frameworks The Common Frameworks Programme was established by…
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Iain Jamieson: The Lord Advocate’s Role in Vetting Bills in the Scottish Parliament for Legislative Competence: A Reply to Chris McCorkindale
A Scottish Minister, when introducing a Bill into the Scottish Parliament, is required by section 31(1) of the Scotland Act 1998 to state that, in his or her view, the Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Parliament. Such a statement is required, by paragraph 3.4 of the Scottish Ministerial Code, to be…
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Anurag Deb and Nicholas Kilford: The UK Internal Market Act: Devolution Minimalism and the Competence Smoke Screen
The UK’s territorial constitution is, at present, under a great deal of pressure. Those familiar with one force unsettling the devolution framework — the attempts to override the Northern Ireland Protocol — will no doubt recall the legislation that first countenanced a similar approach: the UK Internal Market Act 2020 (UKIMA). This piece of legislation…
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Kenneth A Armstrong: A Matter for Another Day? Will the Supreme Court Accept the Lord Advocate’s Independence Referendum Reference?
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has set out the ‘next steps’ in the campaign for Scotland’s independence, including asking the Lord Advocate for Scotland to make a reference to the UK Supreme Court on whether a draft Scottish Independence Referendum Bill relates to ‘reserved matters’ set out in Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998.…
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Stephen Tierney and Alison Young: Constitution Committee report on the Future Governance of the UK
Following a year-long inquiry into the future governance of the United Kingdom, the House of Lords Constitution Committee today publishes its report, Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century. The document comprises 10 chapters, beginning with reflections upon the state of the Union. It then turns to parliamentary sovereignty, relations between…
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Kenneth A. Armstrong: From the Shadow of Hierarchy to the Shadow of Competition – Common Frameworks and the Disciplining of Divergence
This time last year, the controversial United Kingdom Internal Market Bill was ping-ponging between the Commons and Lords. A key point of contention concerned the relationship between the ‘market access’ principles now enshrined in the Act – the mutual recognition and non-discrimination principles – and future exercises of devolved rule-making. Should post-Brexit internal regulatory divergence…
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Gareth Evans: Welsh Devolution and the Co-operation Agreement
On 22 November 2021, after more than two months of talks, the Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru published the text of a Co-operation Agreement (hereafter “the Agreement”) setting out how the two parties will work together during the Sixth Senedd. Unlike previous examples of cooperation between the two parties, the Agreement does not amount to a formal coalition…
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Michael Foran: Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Politics of Law-making
Parliamentary sovereignty has traditionally been understood to mean that Parliament is free to enact legislation on any area of law that it chooses, and that Acts of the U.K. Parliament take precedence over subordinate legislation, regulation, or common law rule. Understood this way, parliamentary sovereignty is a constitutional principle that is couched explicitly in legal…
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Mark Elliott and Nicholas Kilford: Devolution in the Supreme Court: Legislative Supremacy, Parliament’s ‘Unqualified’ Power, and ‘Modifying’ the Scotland Act
In the Continuity Bill Reference, the Supreme Court advanced a striking analysis of the implications for devolution of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty — or, more specifically, of the provision in the Scotland Act 1998 that had hitherto been understood merely to affirm that doctrine. The provision in question is section 28(7), which says of…