Referendums and Constitutional Change: Quebec and Scotland in Focus
April 29-30, 2013
Edinburgh, UK
Website and registration: http://bit.ly/14Vn4S1
A referendum on independence for Scotland will be held in 2014. It is essential that the Referendum (Scotland) Bill, which will shortly be debated by the Scottish Parliament, is informed both by best international practice on how referendums should be organised and by relevant international comparisons.
This two-day international workshop will address the Quebec/Canada experience of referendums and the lessons this might hold for the Scottish process, looking in particular at the two referendums on sovereignty held in Quebec in 1980 and 1995. It will bring together some of the leading political scientists and constitutional lawyers from Quebec with specific expertise in researching referendums, electoral politics and law. A number of scholars from Edinburgh will also offer their insights into the Scottish experience, while others participants will look at other cases including Spain. The workshop will also feature a key note lecture by Leslie Green, Professor of Law, University of Oxford.
The workshop is targeted at academics and civil society, hoping to generate knowledge exchange across the policy-making sector and with other groups across Scotland and the wider United Kingdom interested in how the Scottish process is being, and should be, shaped.
The workshop is co-organised by the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law and the University of Quebec in Montreal, with assistance from the Research Group on Plurinational Societies, Quebec; the Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Edinburgh; the Academy of Government, University of Edinburgh; and the Foundation for Canadian Studies.
