Lord Simpson, a former Supreme Court judge, told BBC Radio Scotland that he expected the court to give the referendum case “a high degree of expedition and can be decided this autumn” because “obviously it cannot be allowed to drag on so much more time “.
He said: “The main difficulty of the Scottish Government is that Scotland’s constitutional relations with the rest of the United Kingdom are a matter of preservation, which means that the Scottish Parliament has no power to legislate on this.
He predicts that Ms. Sturgeon will argue that this is just a “consultative” referendum that will not in itself change relations between Scotland and the United Kingdom.
But he cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that the SNP had exceeded its authority in trying to enshrine children’s rights and local government treaties in Scottish law.
He said: “The difficulty is that the Supreme Court ruled last October that whether a matter is reserved means not only that the Scottish Parliament cannot pass laws directly on it, but it also means that they cannot pass laws. in a way that aimed to put pressure on the UK authorities on a reserved issue.
“I suspect this will probably be the main difficulty in Ms. Sturgeon’s application.”
Add Comment