O’Neill, Aidan --- "EU fundamental rights in a devolved United Kingdom" [2017] ELECD 972; in Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 186

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights

Editor(s): Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782546399

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: EU fundamental rights in a devolved United Kingdom

Author(s): O’Neill, Aidan

Number of pages: 23

Abstract/Description:

Following the victory of the Labour Party in the 1997 General Election, after 18 years of unbroken Conservative rule, the Westminster Government embarked on a programme of constitutional reform in the United Kingdom. In the first session of the new Parliament the three ‘devolution statutes’ were passed – the Scotland Act 1998, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 1998. The 1998 devolutionary settlement sought to recognise the diversity of the United Kingdom as a ‘State of Nations’ rather than a uniform ‘Nation State’, by giving formal constitutional recognition to the distinctive historical and cultural identities of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland within the Union State. In theory, the UK Parliament’s sovereignty remained untouched in this new constitutional framework. There was no formal divesting of power from the UK Parliament, simply its delegation. Devolution did not create a federal structure within the UK. Instead, the sovereign Westminster Parliament retained, and retains, the right to legislate in all matters affecting Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, not simply in those areas which were reserved to it in terms of the various devolution statutes.