"The principle of self-determination is simply not in play here."
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, 23 November 2022.
Scotland isn't a colony; it fails the 1960 test three ways, and stands worse off than the territories that pass it, because every name on the list is promised the question and Scotland is promised nothing.
The receipts
The source list for this chapter, as the publisher maintains it. Archive links are given wherever a cited page could move or die.
- United Nations, Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the Charter, Report of the Secretary-General, A/80/63, 31 January 2025, Annex (the current list, seventeen territories). https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=A/80/63&l=E&t=pdf
- UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV), Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 14 December 1960, 947th plenary meeting, 89 to 0 with 9 abstentions; operative paragraphs 2 and 3.
- UNGA Resolution 1541 (XV), 15 December 1960, Annex, Principles I, IV and V.
- UNGA Resolution 2625 (XXV), Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations, 24 October 1970, the self-determination principle and the safeguard clause.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 1; United Kingdom ratification 20 May 1976.
- Reference re Secession of Quebec [1998] 2 SCR 217, 20 August 1998, at paras 88, 92, 104, 126, 138 and 154. https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1643/index.do
- International Court of Justice, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion, 22 July 2010, I.C.J. Reports 2010, p. 403, at paras 51, 56, 83, 122 and 123 (by ten votes to four).
- International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, Advisory Opinion, 25 February 2019, I.C.J. Reports 2019, p. 95, at paras 160, 172, 174, 177, 178 and 183 (by thirteen votes to one).
- Reference by the Lord Advocate of devolution issues under paragraph 34 of Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act 1998 [2022] UKSC 31, 23 November 2022, at [84] to [92]. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2022/31
- Written Statement of the United Kingdom to the International Court of Justice, Kosovo advisory proceedings, 17 April 2009, para 5.33, as quoted at [2022] UKSC 31, [89].
- MacCormick v Lord Advocate 1953 SC 396 (Court of Session, Inner House, First Division), Lord President Cooper at 411 to 413; Lord Guthrie (Lord Ordinary); Lord Russell. https://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1953/1953_SC_396.html
- Scottish independence referendum, 18 September 2014: Electoral Commission, Scottish Independence Referendum: Report on the referendum held on 18 September 2014, December 2014 (No 55.3 per cent, Yes 44.7 per cent, turnout 84.6 per cent).
- Agreement between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government on a referendum on independence for Scotland (the Edinburgh Agreement), 15 October 2012.
- Northern Ireland Act 1998, section 1 and Schedule 1, paragraphs 1 to 3. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/47
- Scotland Act 1998, Schedule 5, Part I, paragraph 1(b) and (c) (the Union and the Parliament of the United Kingdom as reserved matters).
- Directeur général des élections du Québec, referendum of 30 October 1995, official results (No 50.58 per cent, Yes 49.42 per cent).
- Scottish Parliament election results 2011, 2016 and 2021, and UK general election result in Scotland 2019: House of Commons Library briefings and the Electoral Commission.
- Theresa May, statement on a second independence referendum, 16 March 2017 ("now is not the time"): broadcast remarks, contemporaneous reporting to be replaced by the transcript.
- Letter from the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) to the First Minister (Nicola Sturgeon), 14 January 2020, declining a section 30 order. gov.uk.
- Scottish Parliament, motion on a second independence referendum agreed 28 March 2017, Official Report.
- Publication review additions, 9 October 2026 (the advocate merge; each tag is the edit it sources): - (02-A06#1) (1) Written Case for the Advocate General for Scotland, UKSC 2022/0098, Reference by the Lord Advocate, 31 pp: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1097237/UKSC_2022_0098_-_Reference_by_Lord_Advocate_-_Written_Case_for_the_Advocate_General_for_Scotland.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261009094313/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1097237/UKSC_2022_0098_-_Reference_by_Lord_Advocate_-_Written_Case_for_the_Advocate_General_for_Scotland.pdf). (2) Reference by the Lord Advocate of devolution issues [2022] UKSC 31, judgment 23 November 2022: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2022/31 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261009093658/https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2022/31). (3) Lord Advocate's Reference as filed 28 June 2022, with appendices (gov.scot PDF, 18 pp). (4) The concession itself: MacCormick v Lord Advocate 1953 SC 396 at 411, per Lord President Cooper, 'The Lord Advocate conceded this point by admitting that the Parliament of Great Britain "could not" repeal or alter such "fundamental and essential" conditions' (already verified in).
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