Politics class: UK Supreme Court docket begins listening to on Scottish independence

This text picked by a instructor with urged questions is a part of the Monetary Instances free faculties entry programme. Particulars/registration here.

Specification:

• AQA Element 3.1.1.4: The judiciary: the position of the Supreme Court docket and its influence on authorities, legislature and coverage course of

• Edexcel Element 2 (UK Authorities): 4.1: The Supreme Court docket and its interactions with, and affect over, the legislative and policymaking course of

Click on to learn the article under after which reply the questions:

UK Supreme Court begins hearing on Scottish independence

Background: what it’s essential to know

This text highlights the position of the UK Supreme Court docket because the physique that makes authoritative rulings on constitutional issues. It has been requested to rule on whether or not the Scottish Authorities’s intention to carry one other independence referendum falls inside its authorized authority. It is a politically delicate space.

The UK Authorities’s place is that there isn’t a justification for an additional vote so quickly after the one held in September 2014, and {that a} determination on holding such a referendum just isn’t a devolved matter. Then again, Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Nationalist Social gathering insist that there’s a highly effective case for a second referendum, outlined in one other current article:

Sturgeon vows to step up fight for Scotland’s independence

It might take a number of months for the Supreme Court docket to succeed in a choice. This makes it harder for Sturgeon to organise such a vote by her most well-liked date of October 2023, ought to the decision go her method.

Query within the type of AQA Politics Paper 1

Query within the type of Edexcel Politics Paper 2

• Consider the view that the Supreme Court docket has an excessive amount of affect over the political course of within the UK.

  In your reply you need to draw on related data and understanding of the research of Element 1: UK Politics and Core Political Concepts. You have to take into account this view and the choice to this view in a balanced method. [30 marks]

  TIP: The Supreme Court docket has dominated on different high-profile constitutional points since its institution in 2009. You need to know, for instance, in regards to the judgments on Article 50 and the Brexit course of (2017) and on Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament (2019).

Graham Goodlad, Portsmouth Excessive Faculty