Aberdeen debates referendum issue

"Only legal and legitimate path" to independence, says university debate organiser

News, 11 May 2007

The legality of Scotland declaring independence without the backing of the UK government is to be debated in Aberdeen University this weekend.

As the SNP prepares to form a minority administration in the Scottish Executive, a Law School workshop on the legal impact of a referendum on Scottish independence will hear contributions from international experts as well as Scots lawyers and politicians.

Organiser Anthony Carty, Professor of Public Law, said the workshop was intended to explore and debate the legal issues surrounding the path to independence in an objective and dispassionate manner. It would explore the position if an advisory referendum authorised negotiations for independence but Westminster refused to negotiate.

“We aim to demonstrate that the demand for a referendum as the means for Scots to decide their future on independence is the only legal and legitimate path that can be taken.”

Other contributors include Dr Natalia Alvarez Molinero, a postdoctoral research fellow at the university, Canadian legal experts on the independence question in Quebec, and socialist and Basque nationalist members of the Spanish Congress.

The event, which runs on Saturday 12 May from 9.30-6.30 in the MacRobert Building, will conclude with a round table debate to which representatives from Scottish Labour and the SNP have been invited.