On 15^th October 2012, the UK and Scottish Governments announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of an order under section 30 of the Scotland Act 1998. This means that there will be a simple choice at the referendum in 2014 - for or against independence.

There will be no third option on the ballot paper but this does not mean that all other options for Scotland's future government are off the table. Given the level of debate over a possible third option the content of such a proposal still merits discussion. However, so far no detailed explanation of a possible third option has been put forward.  There may also be some uncertainty as to what the status quo is particularly given the changes to the devolution settlement made by the Scotland Act 2012. The purpose of this seminar is, therefore, to explore both the nature of the constitutional status quo in the light of the Scotland Act 2012 and the range of options for further constitutional reform which remain under-explored.

The seminar will build on the report: Scotland's Constitutional Future: The Legal Issues, by Tom Mullen and Stephen Tierney, published on 5 June 2012.  It will address the status quo following the Scotland Act 2012 and a range of models such as 'devolution plus' and 'devolution max' as they have so far been tentatively discussed, assessing what each might include, what implications each might hold for Scottish government and for inter-governmental relations with the rest of the UK and with the EU.  

There will be time for questions and comments from the floor.

Speakers

Alan Page, Professor of Public Law, University of Dundee

Stephen Tierney, Professor of Constitutional Theory, University of Edinburgh

The seminar will be followed by a reception.

If you would like to attend this event, please contact Ms Lilian Wright, School of Law, University of Glasgow (email: lilian.wright@glasgow.ac.uk; tel: 0141 330 5864)