The Territorial Constitution after Brexit

Speaker: Professor Stephen Tierney (University of Edinburgh)
Chair: TBD

About this lecture:

The referendum vote to leave the European Union came at a time of flux in the United Kingdom’s territorial constitution. Following the drama of the 2014 independence referendum in Scotland, the Scotland Act 2016 and the Wales Act 2017 together marked an important symbolic shift in how devolution was conceived. This legislation sparked renewed interest in federalism as a possible constitutional destination for the country. Somewhat ironically, the debate about whether a federal future for the United Kingdom is institutionally or even conceptually coherent is now on hold while the UK attempts to extricate itself from another ‘federalising’ project.

Professor Tierney will address the territorial constitution in historical relief, focussing upon the symbolic as well as the institutional significance of the most recent round of devolution statutes and drawing out what appears to be the federalising trajectory that lies at their core. In doing so, the lecture will reconsider the concept of federalism itself as a constitutional idea.

An important backdrop to the lecture is of course the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. The lecture will also reflect upon the impact which the Brexit process - from the Miller case through to the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 - has already had upon devolution, before considering the options for the territorial constitution which may emerge after March 2019.

About the speaker:

Stephen Tierney is Vice Dean and Professor of Constitutional Theory in the School of Law, University of Edinburgh. He serves as Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee, as a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Constitutional Law Association and as co-editor of the UK Constitutional Law blog. He is the author of Constitutional Referendums; The Theory and Practice of Republican Deliberation (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Constitutional Law and National Pluralism(Oxford University Press, 2004). He is currently writing a book on the constitutional theory of federalism.

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