Tag: Elections and Referendums Act 2000
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Chris McCorkindale and Aileen McHarg: Constitutional Pathways to a Second Scottish Independence Referendum
The Scottish Government’s Case for a Second Independence Referendum On 19 December 2019 – a week after the Westminster General Election at which the SNP, again, won an overwhelming majority of Scottish seats – the Scottish Government published its long-awaited case for a second independence referendum: Scotland’s Right to Choose: Putting Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s…
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Sam Fowles: Extending Article 50 – Key Legal Issues
With the second defeat of Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement, the subsequent vote to reject a “no-deal” Brexit, and the proposed votes today to extend the Art. 50 period, we must consider the legal practicalities of such an extension. Art. 50(2) provides that, once a state has submitted a notification that it intends to leave the…
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Leah Trueblood: More Good Days for Democracy: The Report of the Independent Commission on Referendums
At the beginning of Democracy in America, de Tocqueville writes that in studying democracy its “…Faults strike one at first approach, but its qualities are only discovered at length.” The report of the Constitution Unit’s Independent Commission on Referendums, published 11 July, demonstrates de Tocqueville’s point. The virtues of democracy are not always immediately clear,…
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Bethany Shiner: Just the Politics of Persuasion: Are Gaps in Regulation Affecting Political Campaigning Methods?
Introduction The chair of the Electoral Commission recently warned that British elections face a ‘perfect storm’ of threats to their integrity from developments in social media and political advertising, and third-party state actors. Such assessments, supported by allegations about the UK-EU referendum and the 2017 general election campaigns, call into question the effectiveness of the…
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Stephen Tierney: A Second Independence Referendum in Scotland: The Legal Issues
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today announced the Scottish Government’s intention to hold a second referendum on independence between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of 2019. The move comes in the week when it is widely anticipated that the United Kingdom Government will serve notice under Article 50 of the Treaty of European…