The Reach and Resources of European Law in the Scottish Independence Referendum

Abstract

Referendums tend to be dominated by internal constitutional preoccupations. The domestic constitutional context can be both the object of a referendum and the source of norms for its substantive and procedural legality. In the specific context of the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, much was made of the idea that the referendum was to be ‘made in Scotland’. Indeed, this interior perspective could give rise to a certain hostility towards ‘external’ voices and perspectives. Yet the exterior normative world of European law reached into and provided significant resources which framed important aspects of the independence referendum.