Pro-Union arguments set out by eminent lawyers

By ANDREW WHITAKER
Published on 12/02/2013 00:00

AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would not inherit the UK’s existing international treaties but would inherit a share of the UK national debt, according a keynote paper launched by Scottish Secretary Michael Moore yesterday.

Mr Moore set out the government’s understanding of new legal analysis on the implications of Scottish independence by two eminent international lawyers.

James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, and Alan Boyle, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Edinburgh, believe the most likely outcome of Scottish independence would be the continuation of the UK as the existing state under international law and the creation of a new state of Scotland.

However, they have not ruled out the creation of two completely new states or the resurrection of the Scottish state that existed prior to 1707, although both outcomes are deemed unlikely.

The Scottish Government’s claim that Scotland would remain a member of existing international organisations such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and, crucially, the European Union “can be dismissed as, at best, inconclusive”, according to the expert analysis.