Unions and Citizens: Membership Status and Political Rights in Scotland, the UK and the EU

Abstract

This chapter-in a volume analysing aspects of the putative withdrawal of a Member State from the European Union and/or the secession of a 'region' from a (Member) state-makes use of the lenses of citizenship to explore the interaction between the two dimensions of 'troubled membership'. It applies a law-and-politics approach, which locates legal change in its broader political context and focuses on the contestation of the boundaries of polity membership. After setting the scene (Section 2), the chapter explores the content of a possible future Scottish citizenship regime (Section 3) and then examines the intertwining of formal legal membership and political citizenship in respect of both the Scottish referendum and the UK's referendum on EU membership (Section 4). The threads are drawn together in the conclusions (Section 5) through a discussion of how the EU referendum outcomes may impact upon the issue at the heart of the Scottish referendum debate, namely the ongoing viability of the UK as a union state.

‘Many Europes’ vs. secessionism: the case of Catalonia

“…There is a legal possibility that the Court of Justice of the EU may expand the EU's supranational powers in terms of decoupling European citizenship from member state's nationality (Crawford & Boyle, 2013). In particular, the Case Rottmann v. Freistaat Bayern (C-135/ 08, ECLI:EU:C:2010:104) is cited as a potential avenue for the EU to protect the 'essence' of EU citizenship in certain cases of loss of national citizenship of an EU member state (Shaw, 2017). In addition, the Court's ruling on Gibraltar and the European Court of Human Rights' decision on Matthews case may allow recognizing the political rights of persons who are not nationals of an EU member state, derived from European citizenship (Medina Ortega, 2017).…”

The quintessentially democratic act? Democracy, political community and citizenship in and after the UK’s EU referendum of June 2016

“…In 2016, Scotland voted by 62% to 38% in favour of the UK remaining in the EU. This outcome was a strong expression of opinion in favour of UK EU membership, but it did not contribute to 'tipping' the overall result from No to Yes against the will of England, a result that some had suggested would be an example of the 'West Lothian Question' on steroids (Shaw 2017).…”

“…But the contrast can be drawn with the 2014 Scottish independence referendum when EU citizens were included, but all non-resident citizens were excluded. This was because the franchise was modelled directly on the Scottish Parliament franchise, which includes EU citizens as a matter of UK (now Scottish) law (as an upgrade from EU law), and excludes all non-residents, including those resident elsewhere in the UK (Shaw 2017). Furthermore, certain non-citizen residents were in fact included in the EU referendum franchise, specifically Irish and Commonwealth citizens (including Maltese and Cypriot citizens who are also EU citizens), because this is what general UK electoral law provides.…”

Analyzing the Effect of Brexit on the British Construction Industry Using Fuzzy Sets Theory

“…Labeled the "Eurosceptic State" for the past couple of decades (Balch and Balabanova, 2017), the United Kingdom decided in favor of withdrawing from the European Union in the intensely publicized June 2016 referendum (Besch and Black, 2016). Following the vote, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, while Scotland publicly confirmed the possibility of the United Kingdom (UK) breaking up, since both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to "Remain" (Shaw, 2017).…”