University news

Ambassador David Scheffer, a former special advisor to Madeline Albright and US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes during President Clinton’s second term of office, will deliver a lecture on Scottish Independence and Critical International Legal Issues at the University of Glasgow on Tuesday 22 January 2013.

The event is the second in a prestigious series of talks organised by the Glasgow Global Security Network on the theme of Security and an Independent Scotland.

Dr Phillips O’Brien, Convener of the University of Glasgow Global security said “This lecture will get to the nub of some of the key issues in the legal and constitutional debate over Scotland’s position in the world. Ambassador Scheffer was named by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the Top Global thinker of 2011 and his opinion carries considerable weight. We are delighted to welcome him to the University of Glasgow and look forward to hearing his views on issues such as self determination, on whether an independent Scotland will inherit treaties and obligations if independence takes place, and what role Scotland might have on international bodies including the EU and the United Nations.”

Ambassador Scheffer, who is Director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, believes that “Scotland is one of the most dynamic laboratories in the world for the modern expression of self determination and how it will be defined for the 21^st Century.”

In the lecture he will argue that,  “The future of Scotland within the European Union is not going to be determined with a one-page pronouncement by the President of the European Commission delivered on a cold December morning in Brussels.  Nor are the rights of the residents of Scotland as European Union citizens necessarily going to be extinguished as a consequence of an independence vote.”

Ambassador Scheffer will also consider the status of Scotland in other world bodies, suggesting that “If the groundwork is properly laid, and there is clearly time to do that, Scotland’s membership in the United Nations should not be that difficult to accomplish.  The formula for U.N. membership will be almost entirely a political one.  In the end the exercise will stand as yet one more example of a uniquely crafted membership exercise dictated by the circumstances, big power interests, and the good will cultivated by Scottish diplomats between now and full independence.  And rather than sacrifice its current participation in a permanent seat on the Security Council, Scotland could negotiate a continuing role in Security Council deliberations through the British permanent seat.”

Ambassador Scheffer will also say that “The fate of Scotland under international law rests on the realities of Scotland’s unique history of union with England since 1707, of the United Kingdom’s membership and role in the European Union and the Security Council of the United Nations—facts that deeply intertwine Scotland with the fate of the United Kingdom before those organizations, and of the complex of treaties in which the United Kingdom is a party—the number and character are such that determining the role of Scotland in those treaties as independence unfolds will be no easy formula.”

 “But every one of these tough issues, and so many more, can be resolved through a combination of smart diplomacy, particularly by Scotland, and political negotiations between Edinburgh and London and with the family of governments and institutions comprising the European Union, NATO, and the U.N. Security Council.” 

“While law will have its role to play in the months and years ahead, Scottish independence, if that is indeed what emerges from the referendum vote, will be a high-stakes political endeavor of unprecedented risks and opportunities.  International law will inform every step of the way, but political negotiations and diplomacy will dictate the outcome.”

Ambassador Scheffer will deliver his lecture on Scottish Independence and Critical International Legal Issues at Glasgow University at 1730 on Tuesday 22 January 2013.

For further information please see: http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/globalsecurity/publicevents/securityandanindependentscotlandlectureseries/

 

 

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First published: 21 January 2013