The Scottish Parliament, the Supreme Court, and an Independence Referendum?

Abstract

1. The result of the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence was a – fairly narrow – rejection of the proposal for Scotland becoming independent at that time. However, there remained a high level of support for independence. As is well-known, whilst the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, a majority of voters in Scotland voted to remain in the EU. As the House of Lords Constitution Select Committee has stated, ‘[t]his prompted calls for a second independence referendum by the Scottish Government, which were rejected by the UK Government on the grounds that this was not a priority during the implementation of Brexit and the response to COVID-19’.