Claim of Right 1989

A Claim of Right for Scotland was a document crafted by the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly in 1988, declaring the sovereignty 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. The list of signatories included several MPs who would later attain high office, including future prime minister Gordon Brown, future chancellor Alistair Darling, and future leaders of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell.

The Claim of Right was signed at the General Assembly Hall, on the Mound in Edinburgh on 30 March 1989 by 58 of Scotland'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, churches and other civic organisations, e.g., trade unions.

Its title was a reference to the Claim of Right Act 1689, an Act of the Convention of Estates of Scotland, a parallel or sister parliament to ‘the Three Estates’. The Act affirmed a fundamental Scottish constitution, declared the requirement for any lawful, Scottish monarch to take the Scottish Coronation Oath, described the existing limits to the power of Scottish monarchs and offered the Scottish Crown to William III and Mary II on these terms. As the Claim of Right Act also deposed a king, (James VII and II), and with him the Three Estates, (legislative Parliament), its reference to the Convention as representing the Estates (communities) of Scotland, “assembled in a full and free representative of this Nation” and acting as “their ancestors in the like cases have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties”, means that it enacted the sovereignty of the people over a monarch and his parliament. For this reason the 1989 Claim of Right consciously echoed this 1689 Act. By contrast, the English Bill of Rights, also passed in 1689, limited the power of its monarchy by transferring the authority of the monarch to the parliament, inaugurating what is now know as the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty.

In October 2011, the Scottish Government 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:

We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount.

We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:

To agree a scheme for an Assembly or Parliament for Scotland;

To mobilise Scottish opinion and ensure the approval of the Scottish people for that scheme; and

To assert the right of the Scottish people to secure implementation of that scheme.

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. 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.

See also

• Claim of Right Act 1689
• Popular sovereignty
• Scottish Covenant Association
• Scots law