Claim of Right 1989
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A Claim of Right for Scotland was a document crafted by the Scottish Constitutional Convention in 1988.
The Claim of Right was signed at the General Assembly Hall, on the Mound in Edinburgh - on the 30th March 1989 by 58 of Scotland's 72 Members of Parliament, 7 of Scotland's 8 MEPS, 59 out of 65 the Scottish Regional, District and Island Councils, and numerous political parties, churches and other civic organisations, eg. trade unions. The document has never had any legal force, and remains a statement of popular opinion.
The Claim was part of a process which led to devolution of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom to a new Scottish Parliament in 1999.
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[edit] Text of the Claim
The Claim of Right reads-
We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount.
We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:
To agree a scheme for an Assembly or Parliament for Scotland;
To mobilise Scottish opinion and ensure the approval of the Scottish people for that scheme; and
To assert the right of the Scottish people to secure implementation of that scheme.
[edit] Reflection in law
The Claim of Right has never had or claimed any legal force, but some imbue it with constitutional significance in relation to Scotland.[1] The question of the relationship between the "sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs" and the parliamentary sovereignty held by the Parliament of the United Kingdom is an unresolved one. While some scope for the former seems to have been acknowledged as a possibility in MacCormick v. Lord Advocate, no practical applications have ever been given.
[edit] References
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[edit] See also
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