INTRODUCTION

Scotland was an independent kingdom until the union of the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603 with the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English crown. Scotland ceased to be a separate state only in 1707 when, by the Acts of Union, it combined with England (and Wales) as constituents of the single state of Great Britain. This union later came to include Ireland; hence Scotland is now part of the union state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Under the terms of the union the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh was dissolved and in its place a single parliament was based at the Palace of Westminster in London which hitherto had been the seat of the English Parliament. The Parliament of the UK comprises two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In a referendum in 1997 the Scots voted in favour of devolution from Westminster and in 1999 a new devolved Scottish Parliament met for the first time in Edinburgh (Holyrood). Private law matters fall within the competence of the Scottish Parliament. In 2014 a referendum was held on whether Scotland should become an independent state once more (Indyref1). By a margin of 55 per cent to 45 per cent the Scots voted to maintain the union. One issue of some influence on the result was the doubt, strongly encouraged by the European Union (EU) itself, that Scotland could remain within the EU if it became independent from the UK. In June 2016 a referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU was held (Brexit). By a margin of 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent the UK voted to leave. In Scotland 62 per cent of the electorate voted to remain. The Scottish First Minister has now announced (March 2017) that she will ask the Scottish Parliament to support an application to Westminster to give the Scottish Government the power to hold a second referendum on independence (Indyref2). If the Scottish people were to vote for independence it is hoped by the present Scottish Government that this would enable Scotland to remain within the European Union. As things stand (September 2017) there may be a second referendum, but only once the details of Brexit are known.