Supreme Court row to go ‘right to the heart of devolution’

Alooming Supreme Court battle over Holyrood legislation has been described as a “technical argument” that will go “right to the heart of devolution”.

Legal experts highlighted the “tension” between the Westminster and Scottish Parliaments after the UK Government asked the country’s highest court to determine whether MSPs acted within their rights when they passed two Bills last month.

The referral to the Supreme Court on Thursday triggered a major row, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon branding it “jaw-dropping” and “morally repugnant”.

The UK government insisted it was not about the “substance” of the legislation, which would enshrine the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Charter of Local Self-Government into Scots law.

Instead, it said the concern related to whether parts of the Bills were within the scope of Holyrood’s powers.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, Nick McKerrell, a senior law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: “In some ways it’s a technical argument, but it does go to the heart of devolution – which is the idea that we’ve got two parliaments that can pass laws for Scotland, and what the limits are for each one to do that.

“One of the areas that the Scottish Parliament aren’t allowed to go into is reserved matters, which is matters that only Westminster can pass laws about.

“This is a slightly more technical argument, because what this is saying is that the courts in Scotland shouldn’t be able to use these laws to limit the legislation coming from Westminster. So that is the tension.”

Mr McKerrell said he expected legal arguments to be made within the next month, or potentially after the election, before a ruling is made by the Supreme Court in late summer on whether the law is within the power of the Scottish Parliament.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the Scottish Government would “vigorously resist” the legal challenge.

Durham University public law and human rights professor Aileen McHarg and Edinburgh University lecturer Scott Wortley were among the experts saying the legal challenge was unlikely to spell the end of the two Bills, but it could mean delays and changes to their scope.

TENSION: The upcoming Supreme Court case will determine whether MSPs were right to pass two bills