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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Alistair Clark
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Demands for a second Scottish independence referendum have persisted since 2014. The Scottish government introduced the Referendums (Scotland) Bill at Holyrood in May 2019 to enable referendums within the competence of the Scottish parliament. The SNP government presented this as a framework enabling a range of referendums. Opponents saw this as legislating for a second independence referendum. The Act will form a large part of the legal framework and rules for any second independence referendum. Importantly, the legislation provides innovation in electoral law more generally. This article discusses the background to the bill, its initial contents, and debates around and amendments to the bill. It discusses its electoral law innovations, before considering its limitations and place as constitutional debates play out over a second independence referendum.
Author(s): Clark A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: The Political Quarterly
Year: 2020
Volume: 91
Issue: 2
Pages: 467-472
Print publication date: 15/06/2020
Online publication date: 08/06/2020
Acceptance date: 12/05/2020
Date deposited: 15/05/2020
ISSN (print): 0032-3179
ISSN (electronic): 1467-923X
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12861
DOI: 10.1111/1467-923X.12861
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