蘇格蘭阻脫歐 英大臣︰不喜歡也要尊重結果○自由(2016.06.29)

蘇格蘭阻脫歐 英大臣︰不喜歡也要尊重結果○自由(2016.06.29)

〔駐歐洲特派記者胡蕙寧／倫敦二十七日報導〕就在歐盟成員國領袖本週展開系列會晤，商討加速英國脫歐程序，英國留歐派兩大黨又陷入內部紛爭之際，蘇格蘭首席大臣史特金（Nicola Sturgeon）顯然成為留歐派的新英雄，她在公投後頻頻出招，最新動作是聲稱英國脫歐必須有蘇格蘭議會的「立法議案同意書」（Legislative Consent Motion, LCM）；由於脫歐直接影響蘇格蘭，議會有責任通過動議批准倫敦在權力下放領域的立法，此舉可能阻止英國脫離歐盟。

根據一九九八年蘇格蘭法案（Scotland Act 1998）立法權限的第二十九條，授權蘇格蘭議會有權審理下放到該領域的立法，原先是針對可能具有爭議的歐盟法律。換言之，該條立法原意是歐盟法律在蘇格蘭實施前，有權審理的政府是蘇格蘭議會，而不是英格蘭的西敏寺下議院。這項立法被憲法專家愛德華爵士（Sir David Edward）引申解釋為蘇格蘭議會有權核准英國與歐盟的關係，尤其在蘇格蘭領域。

歐盟事務 由英國國會定奪

史特金所屬的「蘇格蘭民族黨」（SNP）目前在蘇格蘭議會一二九席中佔六十三席，她表示，很難相信英國可以「不需要得到蘇格蘭立法部門同意」，就自行決定脫歐；她相信英國政府對此將有非常不同的看法，但值得觀察的是這類討論「會在哪裡結束」。

不過，英國政府的蘇格蘭事務大臣蒙戴爾（David Mundell）表示，他不相信蘇格蘭可阻止英國脫歐，蘇格蘭人「就算不喜歡，也要尊重公投結果」。他認為，一九九八年蘇格蘭法案不應凌駕九七年白皮書（White Paper of 1997），後者明訂外交與歐盟事務統一由英國國會決定，國會將「考慮」蘇格蘭議會的看法，但不受這些看法約束。九八年蘇格蘭法案不能被擴張解釋到適用所有事項，這在第五章的附帶條款七中有明確解釋。

Scotland Act 1998

29  Legislative competence.

(1)  An Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far as any provision of the Act is outside the legislative competence of the Parliament.

(2)  A provision is outside that competence so far as any of the following paragraphs apply—

(a)  it would form part of the law of a country or territory other than Scotland, or confer or remove functions exercisable otherwise than in or as regards Scotland,

(b)  it relates to reserved matters,

(c)  it is in breach of the restrictions in Schedule 4,

(d)  it is incompatible with any of the Convention rights or with [F1EU] law,

(e)  it would remove the Lord Advocate from his position as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland.

(3)  For the purposes of this section, the question whether a provision of an Act of the Scottish Parliament relates to a reserved matter is to be determined, subject to subsection (4), by reference to the purpose of the provision, having regard (among other things) to its effect in all the circumstances.

(4)  A provision which—

(a)  would otherwise not relate to reserved matters, but

(b)  makes modifications of Scots private law, or Scots criminal law, as it applies to reserved matters,

is to be treated as relating to reserved matters unless the purpose of the provision is to make the law in question apply consistently to reserved matters and otherwise.