Justiciability of All Human Rights: Scottish Independence as Redress for British Human Rights Abuses

Authors

Ann M. Piccard, Stetson University College of Law

Abstract

On September 18, 2014, an overwhelming number of Scottish residents turned out to vote on one simple question: Should Scotland be an independent country? The deceptively simple yes or no question on the ballot could not begin to reflect the complex underlying issues. If the Independence Referendum had been approved—meaning a “yes” vote, the goal of Independence proponents and of the Scottish National Party (SNP)—every facet of life for the Nation and its citizens could have been affected. The presence of nuclear weapons; membership in the European Union; the very nature and name of the currency used in every transaction every day, no matter how large or small; the availability of jobs, pensions, and health and child care; and always—at the true heart of things—ownership of the North Sea oil right: everything was on the line and reflected in that yes/no ballot question.

The debate leading up to the referendum focused incessantly on politics and economics, but rarely on human rights or on the context of the long, ugly history of England’s domination of Scotland and the centuries of disregard for the human rights of the Scots, which was, and will continue to be, the underlying motive for any talk of Scottish Independence. England has been actively seeking to consume and perhaps obliterate Scotland for hundreds of years, beginning (perhaps) with its systematic genocide of the most indigenous Scots, the Highlanders known as the Picts. Atrocities that took place hundreds of years ago do not make the news today, despite the fact that their consequences are ongoing, current, and never-ending. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The purpose of this Article, therefore, is to draw attention and remembrance to the consequences of England’s hundreds of years of human rights violations, particularly violations of civil, political, social. Economic, and cultural rights, in Scotland, and to propose that these human rights violations ought to be addressed rather than suppressed regardless of the outcome of the 2014 referendum.

Recommended Citation

Piccard, Ann M. (2021) "Justiciability of All Human Rights: Scottish Independence as Redress for British Human Rights Abuses," Florida Journal of International Law: Vol. 27: Iss. 3, Article 1.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/fjil/vol27/iss3/1