Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2017
An Act of the Scottish Parliament to provide for Scotland to become an independent State; to provide an interim constitution for Scotland to have effect from independence; to provide for the establishment of a Constitutional Convention to draw up a permanent constitution for Scotland; and for connected purposes.
PART 1
INDEPENDENCE
Independence
(1) On Independence Day, Scotland becomes an independent State under the constitution set out in Part 2 of this Act.
(2) “Independence Day” is a day to be specified by a resolution of the Scottish Parliament.
(3) From Independence Day, and subject to the constitution –
(a) the Scottish Parliament has full competence to make and modify the law of Scotland,
(b) the Scottish Government assumes full responsibility for the government of Scotland.
PART 2
CONSTITUTION
Sovereignty
Sovereignty of the people
In Scotland, the people are sovereign.
The nature of the people's sovereignty
(1) In Scotland, the people have the sovereign right to self-determination and to choose freely the form in which their State is to be constituted and how they are to be governed.
(2) All State power and authority accordingly derives from, and is subject to, the sovereign will of the people, and those exercising State power and authority are accountable for it to the people.
(3) The sovereign will of the people is expressed in the constitution and, in accordance with the constitution and laws made under it, through the people's elected representatives, at referendums and by other means provided by law.
(4) The sovereign will of the people is limited only by the constitution and by the obligations flowing from international agreements to which Scotland is or becomes a party on the people's behalf, in accordance with the constitution and international law.
Interim constitution for Scotland
(1) Until a written constitution for the State is agreed by or on behalf of the people of Scotland in accordance with section 33, this Part is to have effect as the constitution for Scotland.
(2) References in this Act to “the constitution” are references to this Part.
The State
Name of the State
(1) The name of the State, by which it is to be known formally, is Scotland.
(2) Scotland may enter into international agreements, and become a member of international organisations, in that name.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.