Tuesday, January 17, 2012

 

 Hooray! for Holyrood or


Alex Salmond loses once again

 

 

Scottish independence referendum: Holyrood ‘has no power to hold vote on independence’

no power  no power

no power  no power

 “The UK government’s legal view is that the Scottish Parliament has no power to deliver a referendum on independence. It does not matter whether such a referendum is described as advisory, consultative or providing a basis for negotiations. The Scottish Parliament has no power to legislate for a referendum on independence.”

 27.  Thirdly, two of Lord Steyn's descriptionsare worth noting. First, he describes the devolution legislationof 1998 as pointing to 'a divided sovereignty'. It is not at allclear what this means. The Scottish Parliament, created by the Scotland Act 1998, which his Lordship cites, is anything but a sovereign legislature, as the Scotland Act makes abundantly plain. Moreover, the existence of the Scottish Parliament has done nothing to limit the legal power of the Westminster Parliament to legislate for Scotland, even on ostensibly devolved matters: see Scotland Act 1998, section 28(7). The political reality may for the time being be that the Westminster Parliament will not legislate for Scotland on devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish Parliament, but this behaviour results from a political agreement and has nothing to do with the legal principles that Lord Steyn is concerned with. Secondly, he describes the Human Rights Act as having created a "new legal order". This is obvious mimicry of the European Court of Justice, which in 1963 famously described the European Union as having created a "new legal order of international law", a new legal order that dealt with matters of national sovereignty, for example, differently from the way in which they were understood in ordinary international law. Again, however, is his Lordship's terminology not somewhat tendentious? The Human Rights Act seeks to balance Convention rights with parliamentary sovereignty, and seeks to ensure that the sovereignty of Parliament is preserved in the scheme of the Act. It is to be noted that Lord Steyn's dicta in Jackson were subsequently described as '"unargued and unsound", "historically false", and "jurisprudentially absurd" (R Ekins, 'Acts of Parliament and the Parliament Acts' (2007) 123 Law Quarterly Review 91, 103) and, moreover, that Lord Bingham seemed to ally himself with these criticisms in his 2007 Commemoration Lecture delivered at King's College London, in which he stated that Lord Steyn's comments 'did not bear on an issue which had to be decided in the case and therefore have no authority as precedent'. 

 Section 28(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 for instance makes clear that the Scottish Parliament's legislative power

does not affect the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Scotland.

 

 Alex Salmond the wind bag as per usual!

9 comments:

  1. Check out the UN's law which describes the right to self-determination. That super-cedes UK as agreed when the UK joined them.
    So, it doesn't matter what the UK government says Scotland has the right to self-determination, and if that means having a referendum then it must be so. You can bring up any UK law you want for the UK laws, if they clash with EU law and/or all the international treaties they have signed, isn't worth the paper it is written on.
    Bad luck, try again.

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  2. Its awfy windy outside tonight Niko I would stay indoors for your safety.

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  3. Alex loses again? I think you're confusing Alex with Jack, Wendy and Iain...

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  4. Gedguy

    Never knew you was a top flight legal brain Oh! yer not wot a surprise.........

    Conan
    that there leaky roof has confused you once again

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  5. I see privatising the NHS is in Labour's manifesto after yesterday Niko it certainly is an ill wind.

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  6. Niko,

    I don't need to be a legal brain to read on the internet. The facts are there if you want to find them. The problem with you and your dogmatic approach to this subject [one of many I suspect ;-)] is that you have your mind made up and nothing on Earth is going to change that. Whereas, I would be more than happy to retain the Union if you can convince me that this is the best thing for my country. However, I suspect that you are not willing even to try.

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  7. Gedguy

    I strongly suspect you are right..........

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  8. "I strongly suspect you are right"

    It's nice to be right now and again.

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