It’s tricky and will be subject of a large constitutional debate if they try it.
The basis for the claim that they could veto it is that the European Communities Act of the UK is incorporated into the enabling legislation that devolved power to the Scottish parliament. This forces the Scottish parliament to observe EU regulations just as the UK does. The idea now is that, because the ECA is in the enabling legislation, Scotland is in a sense a part of the EU in its own right, and the UK Parliament can’t take that away from them simply by invoking Article 50.
The UK Parliament does have the power to rewrite the devolution legislation, removing references to the EU from it. It also has the power to write new legislation explicitly denying Scotland any hypothetical veto power. The UK Parliament is ultimately sovereign over everything in the UK.
BUT — this would produce extreme anger in Scotland, which voted to Remain in the EU and voted to remain in the UK only by gnat’s whisker.
If the UK Parliament wants to keep Scotland in the UK, it’s going to have to be conciliatory about it. Nicola Sturgeon is right to make the threat to remind the UK Parliament that this isn’t just a question of in/out of the EU; the unity of the UK itself is on the line.
Read other answers by Ernest W. Adams on Quora:
- Given that the UK voted to leave, was David Cameron's decision to hold a Brexit referendum a grave political miscalculation?
- What approach should the UK take in negotiating its new relationship with the EU?
- Is Boris Johnson the right person to lead a post-Brexit United Kingdom?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2edGTmz
No comments:
Post a Comment