The author, a lawyer and commentator, is an FT contributing editor
From a authorized perspective, the Scottish authorities must be upset with Wednesday’s Supreme Court docket judgment that an independence referendum can’t be held with out the consent of Westminster and Whitehall.
Nicola Sturgeon’s authorities desires to carry a plebiscite on the union of Scotland and England with out permission from London. The courtroom dominated that there was a severe case to be heard and the UK authorities’s two makes an attempt to knock out the declare on technicalities failed. And, as with all debatable case, it may have gone both method.
Underneath the Scotland Act, the Scottish parliament can’t legislate on a matter the place it “pertains to reserved issues”, which embrace the union. The Scottish authorities contended {that a} referendum, which in and of itself wouldn’t be binding, didn’t “relate to” the union or to the sovereignty of parliament. It conceded that really legislating for independence would relate to it, however not a mere referendum.
The Supreme Court docket may have taken a narrower view of what’s meant by the phrase “pertains to”. Nevertheless it unanimously rejected the Sturgeon authorities’s submission, holding {that a} referendum “just isn’t merely an train in public session or a survey of public opinion”. As an alternative, it was “a democratic course of held in accordance with the legislation which ends up in an expression of the view of the citizens on a particular situation of public coverage on a selected event”.
The proposed independence referendum could be advisory. It could not be self-executing, for it could not have quick impact with out additional laws. Nonetheless, the courtroom judged that holding such a vote would nonetheless be a reserved matter as a result of it could “relate to” the union of Scotland and England or to the sovereignty of parliament.
Because the courtroom additionally put it, “[a] lawful referendum on the query envisaged by the Invoice would undoubtedly be an vital political occasion, even when its consequence had no quick authorized penalties”. Some might imagine that it’s no enterprise of a courtroom to take account of such political, non-legal elements, however the Supreme Court docket accurately stated that the Scotland Act required it to method the query “in all of the circumstances” — even when these weren’t simply the authorized ones.
The Scottish authorities will be pleased with the way it managed to get the matter earlier than the Supreme Court docket. The framing of the case was ingenious — and that the courtroom determined the case on its deserves reveals that it was not frivolous or contrived. The Scottish authorities’s Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, was spectacular in her arguments. The case couldn’t have been put higher.
This was a uncommon case the place the Supreme Court docket was not sitting as an enchantment courtroom. On sure devolution questions, it’s a courtroom of first occasion.
However it is usually right here a courtroom of final occasion. There isn’t a enchantment from the Supreme Court docket. The authorized path to an independence referendum with out the consent of Westminster or Whitehall now involves an finish. The difficulty returns from the realm of legislation to the realm of politics.
And so it’s from a political perspective that the Scottish authorities will be heartened. Wednesday’s judgment reveals the restrictions of the devolution settlement. This may bolster supporters of independence, who will preserve that the choice reveals Scotland is locked right into a supposedly “voluntary” union with no unilateral method out.
Professional-independence supporters can even contend the judgment reveals that beneath the legislation of the UK, the Scottish parliament appears to be little greater than a statutory physique, topic to a strict rule of extremely vires.
Supporters of Scottish independence could also be upset by the authorized choice, however they won’t be upset by the political sign that this judgment sends.
