Scotland 'would lose out on rights'

Oct 16 2012

An independent Scotland would lose all of its international rights and obligations while the rest of the UK would continue as before, according to constitutional experts.

The Scottish Government insists that Scotland would become a joint-successor state to the existing international treaties and memberships alongside the remainder of the UK.

However, three constitutional experts told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that Scotland would start with "a clean slate", potentially losing all of the UK's existing opt-outs of the euro currency, the Schengen passport-free travel area, and its budget rebate.

Scotland may also have to erect border posts with the remainder of the UK, it was suggested.

Dr Jo Eric Murkens, senior lecturer at the London School of Economics law school, took issue with the Scottish Government's insistence that independence would herald the dissolution of the 300-year-old Act Of Union and reinstate Scotland's historic nation-state status.

"Nobody is seriously suggesting that we could go back to 1707," he said.

"The legal entities that existed at the time would exist no more.

"Scotland would secede, and the rest of the UK would effectively continue as the UK so there would be no change south of the border. Dissolution does not correspond to international practice.

"When we look at the relevant precedent cases, particularly the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1990-91, it was very clear that the international community wanted Russia to continue as the continuing state.

"A main factor in that case was the existence of nuclear weapons, and the international community wanted Russia to take control because they were scattered around the Soviet Union in other states, and it was very clear that they didn't want small states with a nuclear ability. I think this is an exact parallel with the UK, and the international community would want the UK to continue and for Scotland to start afresh."