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Entries for December 2013

Ewan Sutherland: Economic Regulation in an Independent Scotland

The Scottish Government has set a date for independence, should it win the referendum, giving the period from 19 September 2014 to 23 March 2016 for the completion of the transition to an independent country and a full member state of the European Union and the OECD. In terms of the regulation of sectors of the Scottish economy it is a very tight schedule.

 

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Bernard Ryan: Downplaying Sovereignty? Citizenship in Scotland's Future

Were it to become independent, Scotland would have its own legal citizenship, and would in principle be free to define the circumstances in which that status was acquired. Scotland’s Future has added new detail concerning the content of Scotland’s citizenship law in the event of independence.

 

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Niamh Nic Shuibhne: University Fees and rUK Students - the EU Legal Framework

The White Paper affirms that ‘[f]ree education for those able to benefit from it is a core part of Scotland’s educational tradition and the values that underpin our educational system’ (p198). In that context, it is clearly stated that the Scottish Government would ‘continue to support access to higher education in Scotland for students from elsewhere in the EU in accordance with our support for student mobility across Europe’ (p200). On the previous page, however, the Government also asserts that it will ‘maintain the status quo by continuing our current policy of charging fees to students from the rest of the UK to study at Scottish higher education institutions’. It is difficult to see how these competing objectives can be reconciled under EU law.

 

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Aileen McHarg: A Tale of Two Constitutions?

Last week, I spent two days in London, accompanying a group of Constitutional Law students on a trip to the Westminster Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Scotland Office.  The trip was part of a final year research project shadowing the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee’s Inquiry into The Constitutional Role of the Judiciary if there were a Codified Constitution.

 

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Sarah Craig: Immigration in the White Paper - 'Continuity of Effect' and its Limits

Immigration is a reserved matter under the Scotland Acts, so independence would enable a Scottish Government to shape its own immigration policy for the first time. A short section in Chapter 7 of the White Paper promotes a more protection-oriented approach to asylum, and places managed migration more centrally than the UK Government does.

 

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Sheila Riddell: The Future of Scottish Universities in the Context of the Referendum on Independence

The Scottish Government’s  White Paper on Scotland’s Future, published on 26th November 2013, includes a chapter on education, skills and employment, and has a particular focus on the university sector.   The paper notes that ‘the university sector is one of the main drivers of the Scottish economy’, contributing to the economic, social and cultural welfare of the nation.

 

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Tom Mullen: Welfare and Pensions After Independence

Chapter 4 of the Scottish Government’s Independence White Paper deals with health, wellbeing and social protection. This includes policy on pensions, social security benefits, housing, NHS and other health matters.

 

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Kirstein Rummery: Would an Independent Scotland be a Fairer Nation?

Would the vision of an independent Scotland as described in the White Paper Scotland’s Future be a fairer nation? The White Paper sets out some interesting commitments but leaves some important questions unanswered.

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Ruth Dukes: The White Paper, Employment Rights and Employment Relations

The independence white paper contains a number of significant policy pronouncements and legislative commitments in the field of employment rights and employment relations.  Insofar as it relates to the world of work, the white paper is striking for its emphasis of greater substantive equality as a key policy goal, for its recognition of the importance of employees’ rights in achieving that goal, and for the stated readiness of the Government to commit itself to involving trade unions and employers in government, recognising ‘the positive role that can be played by collective bargaining’.

 

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Alan Page: Scotland's Future: Some Unanswered Questions

Should Scotland vote yes next September the legislation on independence would place a duty on the Scottish Parliament elected in 2016 to establish a constitutional convention to prepare a permanent written constitution for Scotland (Scottish Government, Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland: p 332). There is understandable interest in what that constitution might say and how it might be made.

 

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Jo Shaw: Citizenship in Scotland's Future

‘An independent Scotland will have an inclusive approach to citizenship’. So says the White Paper, and so said other earlier documents. That much we already knew. We know more now, in relation to the issues of birth, descent and residence, but there are still many gaps which need to be filled in.

 

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Paul Beaumont: The Scottish Government's Position on the Relationship Between an Independent Scotland and the EU

The Scottish Government published its White Paper on Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland on Tuesday 26th November 2013 and the next day it published Scotland in the European Union.

 

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