Disappointed but not surprised by the Supreme Court ruling on my European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland Bill. 1/7 supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-202…
The question before the court was not about the merits of the Bill but about whether its provisions modifed s28(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 and on the proper application of s 101(2) of the Scotland Act 1998. 2/7
In short the Bill provided for limits to be placed on existing legislation where it breached the European Charter. The limits would only apply to devolved matters but (importantly) would apply to UK laws on devolved matters 3/7
Most of Scots law in the devolved space is still governed by UK statutes. The Supreme Court ruled that provisions of the European Charter Bill purport to modify the powers of UK to legislate and to qualify the provisions of Uk statutes thus being outwith competence of the SP 4/7
The Bill will now proceed to a reconsideration stage. The amendments required to resolve the incompatibility are straightforward (limit the provisions to ASPs). But it raises a wider point about the Scotland Act. 5/7
Devolved powers are covered by SP acts & UK Acts - it is clear now that UK Acts r 2b treated differently from SP Acts despite both covering devolved areas. One solution is a consolidating Bill introduced to SP that mirrors as much of UK law in devolved areas as possible. 6/7
Meanwhile, expect a huge amount of nonsense to be talked about this ruling - this is just the first I spotted this morning - all of which is completely untrue. 7/7
https://twitter.com/scotyounggreens/status/1445674599941873664
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
