Parliament of Scotland
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
(or Three Estates), in April 1689. It is one of the key documents of
United Kingdom constitutional law
The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...
King of England
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers Constitutional monarchy, regula ...
and Ireland as James II, attempted to resist the invasion. He then sent representatives to negotiate, and he finally fled England on 23 December 1688.
Whilst the Convention Parliament in England declared that James, as King of England, had abdicated the government, and issued an
English Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights 1689 (sometimes known as the Bill of Rights 1688) is an act of the Parliament of England that set out certain basic civil rights and changed the succession to the English Crown. It remains a crucial statute in English con ...
on 13 February 1689 offering the Crown of England to William and Mary, the Scots found themselves facing a more difficult constitutional problem. As James had not been present in Scotland during the crisis and had not fled from Scottish territory in December, it would be highly dubious to claim that he had the Scots throne.
Process
Therefore, a Convention of the Scottish Estates met to consider letters received on 16 March 1689 from the two contenders for the Crown. On 4 April they voted to remove James VII from office, drawing on
George Buchanan
George Buchanan (; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth-century Scotland produced." His ideology of re ...
's argument on the contractual nature of monarchy.
Later that month, the convention adopted the Claim of Right and the Article of Grievances, enumerating what they saw as the contemporary requirements of Scottish constitutional law. It also declared that, because of his actions in violation of these laws, James had forfeited the Scottish throne.
The convention proceeded to offer the crown on the basis of these documents to William and Mary, who accepted it on 11 May 1689, and were proclaimed King and Queen of the Scots as William II and Mary II, though with subsequent controversy over whether the Claim of Right articles against
Episcopacy
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...
were fully accepted by the new monarchy.
Provisions of the act
The act includes the passages:
Significance
The effect of the Claim of Right was to "bolster the position of parliament within the Scottish constitution at the expense of the royal prerogative". It was affirmed by an act of the Scottish Parliament of 1703 (Act Ratifieing the turning of the Meeting of the Estates in the year 1689, into a Parliament c. 3). The act was retained by the Parliament of the United Kingdom after the
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union refer to two acts of Parliament, one by the Parliament of Scotland in March 1707, followed shortly thereafter by an equivalent act of the Parliament of England. They put into effect the international Treaty of Union agree ...
Court of Session
The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...
Outer House judge, Lord Doherty found the claim was non-justiciable, and that if it was justiciable then there was no breach of the Claim of Right.''Joanna Cherry QC MP and Others for Judicial Review' (4 September 2019) (Scotland). Para 30 The Inner House allowed the appeal, ruling the issue justiciable and the prorogation unlawful, since its true purpose was to "stymie Parliamentary scrutiny of government action". However, it said this was not a consequence of peculiarities of
Scots law
Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...
or the Claim of Right.''Joanna Cherry QC MP and Others v The Advocate General' CSIH 49 (11 September 2019) (Scotland). "This is not because of the terms of the Claim of Right 1689 or of any speciality of Scots constitutional law, it follows from the application of the common law, informed by applying 'the principles of democracy and the rule of law' (Moohan v Lord Advocate 2015 SC (UKSC) 1, Lord Hodge at para 5. The terms of the Claim of Right are not breached simply because Parliament does not sit for a month or so. Parliament has, throughout the year, been allowed to sit."