Scots are ultimate authority for referendum

Published on 08/07/2012 00:00

FOLLOWING Mr W Rennie, Liberal Democrat Leader in the Scottish Parliament (Insight, 24 June), I anticipated interesting replies to appear in the 1 July edition of Scotland on Sunday. I was not disappointed – saddened and frustrated perhaps, because erudite though they were, none of your correspondents appear to have read the Treaty of Union, not even Mr Rennie.

First we should know that Westminster is the Parliament of Great Britain and the United Kingdom set up by the Treaty of Union in 1707. What appears not to be understood is that The People of Scotland are the Superior Authority in Scottish Constitutional matters.

In your Online Forum, correspondent “Colonial­toff” suggests leaving the matter to the Courts. However, the question of Scottish Authority has already been settled by Scotland’s highest authority, the Court of Session. In 1953, in the case of McCormack v The Lord Advocate, Scotland’s chief judge Lord Cooper of Cardross ruled in his judgment, “that Parliamentary Sovereignty was a purely English Principle with no counterpart in Scottish Constitutional Law”.

Any astute reader of the Treaty of Union of 1707 will come to the same conclusion. Scotland’s ancient written Constitutional Law extant, is the Primus Law of Scotland where The Sovereign People of Scotland are the superior Constitutional authority.

Ergo Westminster has no dominion over us. We decide the referendum terms, question et al, it is Scotland’s decision untrammelled by any other place or institution.

John J G McGill, Kilmarnock