Although questions of what national self-determination means and how it can be exercised have changed over time, says Michael Keating, the response of the Spanish authorities to the 2017 Catalan referendum breaches the modern, democratic, notion of the right to decide.
Amidst the current, noisy, political debate about ‘bonanzas’ and ‘power grabs’ there is some measure of consensus between the UK and Scottish Governments as regards the need for (and value of) UK-wide ‘common frameworks’ post-Brexit, especially in relation to the functioning of markets within the UK. However, as Shepherd and Wedderburn's Gordon Downie explains, what might be described as the opening negotiating positions of the UK and Scottish Governments reveal wide differences on the scope and content of these new common frameworks, and on the constitutional mechanics that should underpin them.
In an interim report on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, the House of Lords Constitution Committee has said that the “political, legal and constitutional significance of the Bill is unparalleled”. In this post, Mark Elliott and Stephen Tierney examine the main points made in the report and comment on the key issues raised by it.
Any future Labour government would need to confront EVEL, says Prof Michael Kenny, not least because many of Jeremy Corbyn's totemic policies relate only to England.
Neither the Spanish nor Catalan government's have the mandate or the room for manoeuvre that would allow them to break the current impasse, says Michael Keating.
Decisions over the repatriation of powers and the role of a 'UK single Market' will have significant implications for the future of devolution and the nature of the UK as a state, says Michael Keating.
Although there are apparent similarities between the Scottish and Catalan independence movements, the differences, argues Dr Daniel Cetrà, are profound.
The EU Withdrawal Bill passed its first parliamentary hurdle in the House of Commons on Monday night. On Tuesday, both the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government tabled legislative consent memorandums making clear their opposition to the Bill as it stands. Nicola McEwen highlights the key issues at stake for devolution, and considers some next steps.
