Scotland does not have a written constitution for the devolved status of Scotland to protect its people from abuse of state power.
Devolution has made it meaningful to talk of a Scottish constitution in the ‘unwritten’ Westminster tradition.
It is not set out in a comprehensive written statement but in a mixture of statutes, judicial decisions, constitutional conventions, and ‘soft law’. Its primary source is the Scotland Act 1998, which established the legislative and executive institutions of devolved government, but not the judicial institutions already guaranteed by the Acts of Union three centuries before.
Competence over the Scottish constitution for the most part lies with the UK Parliament. Attempts were made to entrench the devolution settlement following the No vote in the 2014 independence referendum. An ‘interim constitution’ would have replaced it had Scotland voted Yes.
The current constitution may not have been ‘made in Scotland’ but it incorporates important safeguards against the abuse of state power which ought not to be lost sight of in consideration of what might replace it. The chapter concludes by indicating some of the possible directions of reform that might be pursued by the Scottish Parliament in the exercise of its as yet limited legislative competence over the constitution.