Scotland

:For other uses, see Scotland (disambiguation). See also British Isles (terminology).

Government and politics

Government

As one of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, Scotland is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London. The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh has the power to govern the country on Scotland-specific matters and has a limited power to vary income tax. The United Kingdom Parliament retains responsibility for Scotland's defence, international relations and certain other areas. The Scottish Parliament is not a sovereign authority, and the UK Parliament could, in theory, overrule or even abolish it at any time.

Related Topics:
Parliament of the United Kingdom - London - Scottish Parliament - Edinburgh

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For the purposes of local government, Scotland is divided into 32 unitary authority districts. Popular folk-memory continues to divide Scotland into 33 traditional counties.

Related Topics:
Unitary authority districts - Traditional counties

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Head of state

Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom, is descended from King James VI of Scotland, the first Scottish monarch to also be King of England (James I of England from 1603).

Related Topics:
Elizabeth II - Head of state - United Kingdom - James VI - James I of England - 1603

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While great controversy has simmered amongst the Scottish public over her official title since her coronation (many believe that, being the first Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, she should use regnal name "Elizabeth I"), the courts of Scotland have confirmed "Elizabeth II" as her official title. She has said that in the future monarchs will follow the international ordinal tradition that, where a monarch reigns in a number of non-independent territories (or independent territories that agree to share a monarch) that each have a differing number of previous monarchs of the same name, the highest ordinal used in any of the territories is the one used across all. (Past Scottish-English monarchs such as James VI & I and James VII & II reigned over legally separate kingdoms and hence used a dual ordinal).

Related Topics:
Coronation - Regnal name

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Properly, the Scottish monarch was known as "King/Queen of Scots", and referred to as "your Grace", rather than "your Majesty".

Related Topics:
Grace - Majesty

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Scots Law

Scotland retains its own unique legal system, based on Roman law, which combines features of both civil law and common law. The terms of union with England specified the retention of separate systems. The barristers being called advocates, and the judges of the high court for civil cases are also the judges for the high court for criminal cases. Scots Law differs from England's common law system.

Related Topics:
Roman law - Civil law - Common law - Scots Law

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Formerly, there were several regional law systems in Scotland, one of which was Udal Law (also called allodail or odal law) in Shetland and Orkney. This was a direct descendant of Old Norse Law, but was abolished in 1611. Despite this, Scottish courts have acknowledged the supremacy of udal law in some property cases as recently as the 1990s. There is a movement to restore udal lawhttp://www.udallaw.com/ to the islands as part of a devolution of power from Edinburgh to Shetland and Orkney.

Related Topics:
Udal Law - 1611 - 1990s

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Various systems based on common Celtic or Brehon Laws also survived in the Highlands until the 1800s.

Related Topics:
Brehon Laws - 1800s

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Politics

See main article: Politics of Scotland, also Politics of the United Kingdom

Related Topics:
Politics of Scotland - Politics of the United Kingdom

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Historically the politics of Scotland have reflected those of the UK as a whole, although with some differences. For example, besides the main UK-wide political parties (Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats) a number of Scottish-specific parties operate. These include the Scottish National Party (SNP) which is Scotland's second largest party and forms the main opposition in Parliament, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Scottish Green Party. These parties became more of a force in Scottish politics after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1998. Unlike England, which has a more of a left/right split politically, the political right in Scotland is actually amongst the smallest political groupings with the four main Parties all coming from a mix of far-left to moderate-left philosophies.

Related Topics:
Labour - Conservatives - Liberal Democrats - Scottish National Party - Scottish Socialist Party - Scottish Green Party - Scottish Parliament - 1998

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The traditional political divides of left and right have also intersected with arguments over devolution, which all the UK-wide parties have supported to some degree throughout their history (although both Labour and the Conservatives have swithered a number of times between supporting and opposing it). However, now that devolution has occurred, the main argument about Scotland's constitutional status remains between those who support Scottish independence and those who oppose it. Recent trends indicate, according to the State of the Nation Poll 2004, that 66% of Scots would like the Scottish Parliament to have more powers, while only 25% would like to see the powers returned to Westminster.

Related Topics:
Left and right - Scottish independence - 2004 - Scottish Parliament - Westminster

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