Flickr/kjd. Some rights reserved.
As both a constitutional lawyer, albeit one specializing in the United States, and a political scientist, I followed with great interest the recent vote in Scotland regarding potential secession from the United Kingdom. From an entirely detached academic perspective of someone with no affiliation with the United Kingdom or any of its regions, the final outcome almost did not really matter. It is simply the case that the actual affirmative vote to remain within the United Kingdom generates different, but still fascinating, questions from those that would have occurred had those supporting secession prevailed. In the latter case, there would have been much discussion, no doubt, about the mechanics by which Scotland would become truly independent and, crucially, whether it would have easily (or at all) become a member of the European Union. Instead, discussion now focusses on the implications of the promises made especially in the final weeks before the referendum, when it appeared that momentum had shifted to the secessionist camp. Conservatives, Labour, and Liberal Democrats alike agreed to even stronger devolution than is now the case, with the now-permanent Scottish Parliament being given plenary powers regarding taxation and some important social issues, especially involving the operation of the modern welfare state.
Not surprisingly, these promises, however welcome to many Scots, were apparently received with decidedly mixed feelings in the remainder of the United Kingdom. Welsh nationalists would presumably like a greater degree of devolution than now exists, even if none would actually support a thoroughly quixotic venture into independent nationhood. (Unlike Scotland, Wales has neither sufficient population nor resources like oil that could finance an independent country.) But the most important audience, by far, was composed of those living in England, where the overwhelming percentage of Britons live. Inasmuch as the practical import of devolution is that only the Scottish Parliament would vote on many laws affecting Scotland, including tax policy, some residents of England (whether or not it is proper to describe them as “English nationalists”) are suggesting a kind of reciprocal monopoly, as it were; this would mean that only non-Scottish parliamentarians would vote on measures that affect only the rest of the UK but not a now more, even if not completely, independent Scotland. The mantra of “English votes for English laws” has been adopted by proponents of such exclusivity, and there is great pressure to allow Parliament to vote on such a proposal. Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written in the Guardian that “If you want to kill off the United Kingdom, there is no better way.” He described a developing “constitutional crisis” that could as easily test the future of the United Kingdom as would have an affirmative vote for independence in September. One does not have to possess a written constitution in order to have a “constitutional crisis”!
