''A Claim of Right for Scotland'' was a document crafted by the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly in 1988, declaring the

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

of the Scottish people. It was signed by all then-serving Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, with the exception of Tam Dalyell (Labour), a strident opponent of

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territori ...

. It was also boycotted by the Conservative Party and Scottish National Party both of whom believed the document to be illegitimate. The list of signatories included several MPs who would later attain high office, including future prime minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

, future chancellor

Alistair Darling Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (28 November 1953 – 30 November 2023) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under prime minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party ...

, and future leaders of the Liberal Democrats

Charles Kennedy Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 19591 June 2015) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 to 2015. Kennedy wa ...

and

Menzies Campbell Walter Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem, (; born 22 May 1941), often known as Ming Campbell, is a Scottish politician, advocate and former athlete. A member of the Liberal Democrats, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for North ...

. The Claim of Right was signed at the General Assembly Hall, on the Mound in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 30 March 1989 by 58 of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

's 72 Members of Parliament, 7 of Scotland's 8 MEPs, 59 out of 65 Scottish regional, district and island councils, and numerous

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, churches and other civic organisations, e.g.,

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. Its title was a reference to the

Claim of Right Act 1689 The Claim of Right (c. 28) () is an act passed by the Convention of the Estates, a sister body to the Parliament of Scotland (or Three Estates), in April 1689. It is one of the key documents of United Kingdom constitutional law and Scottish ...

. In October 2011, the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

, led by the SNP which opposed the Claim of Right when it was originally produced, announced that the Claim of Right would be brought before the Scottish Parliament to allow MSPs to re-endorse the claims of the sovereignty of the Scottish people. The Claim of Right was debated in the Scottish Parliament on 26 January 2012.

Text of the Claim

The Claim of Right reads:

Legal significance

The Claim of Right has never had or claimed any legal force.

Debate in the House of Commons

On 4 July 2018, the House of Commons debated the Claim of Right in an Opposition Day debate selected by the SNP, which had previously opposed the document. This motion noted that the people of Scotland are sovereign and that they have the right to determine the best form of government for Scotland's needs. This was a non-binding debate and did not create any legal recognition of the Claim of Right or have any legal significance.

References

1989 in politics 1989 in Scotland Collective rights Home rule in the United Kingdom Political charters Political history of Scotland Popular sovereignty Proclamations 1989 documents {{Scotland-poli-stub

Text of the Claim

Legal significance

Debate in the House of Commons

See also

References