Letter: Law of the land

I agree with Robert Veitch (Letters, 30 May) that many Scots have little grasp of Scottish history. This sometimes seems an intended result of the policies of the unionism which he approves. I assume he has read the Treaty of Union. Parts of Article XIX might be relevant to the current debate about having a UK Supreme Court:

"… and that no causes in Scotland be cognoscible by the Court of Chancery, Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, or any other court in Westminster Hall: and that the said courts, or any other of the like nature, after the Union, shall have no power to cognosce, review or alter the Acts or sentences of the judicatures within Scotland…"

I acknowledge that injustices occur in Scotland and that we need to improve the mechanisms to correct these, but subjecting Scottish courts to oversight from London was not seen as right in the 1700s and still seems wrong to me.

David Stevenson

Blacket Place

Edinburgh

The comment by Professor John Kay that Scotland would gain little from full independence, and that in the modern world economic sovereignty for small nations is inescapably limited, and political sovereignty is largely symbolic (your report, 30 May), is bizarre.

The Legatum Prosperity Index is the world's only global assessment of wealth and wellbeing. Unlike other studies that rank countries by actual levels of wealth, life satisfaction or development, it produces rankings based upon the very foundations of prosperity, those factors that will help drive economic growth and produce happy citizens over the long term.

The top three nations are those with similar or smaller populations than Scotland - Norway, Denmark and Finland, with the UK in 13th place.

The IMF list of countries sorted by gross domestic product per capita puts Luxembourg in top place, followed by Norway, with Ireland in 12th place and the UK in 22nd.

It is clear that small is indeed still beautiful as smaller nations have the flexibility and nimbleness to quickly respond to their economic environment and adjust policy accordingly.

Alex Orr

Leamington Terrace

Edinburgh