Thread by @andywightman

Can I attempt to give a practical example of what today’s Supreme Court ruling means. Both Bills incorporate international treaties and provide judicial remedies where a Court finds that any provision of the UN or CoE treaties have been violated. 1/5

So, for example, if a local authority were to consider that a decision by Scottish Ministers violated an Article of the European Charter, it could launch a judicial review of that decision. 2/5

As passed, the Bill provides that courts could find in favour of the authority & issue a declaration of incompatibility. This could be made under the Bill as passed provided that the matter complained of is a devolved matter (irrespective of whether a UK or a SP statute) 3/5

The implications of Supreme Court ruling however are that the SP only has legislative competence to give the Courts this power in respect of legislation (primary or secondary) passed by SP. This means that remedies will only be available where the breach is of SP legislation. 4/5

This is an unsatisfactory two tier system and can only be sorted by incorporating ALL devolved law still covered by UK statutes into a SP Act thus ensuring that the provisions are challengeable under both Bills. 5/5

I should add that EuroCharter Bill drafted by Christine O'Neill QC, a pre-eminent expert in constitutional law. We debated long & hard about legcomp & considered we got it right. There was no politics about my Bill.