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Preface -- Contents -- Chapter 1: A Century of Labour in Scotland: Struggles and Achievements -- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- Chapter 2: The Sectarianism Debate and the Advent of Devolution -- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- Chapter 3: 'Indyref', Identity Politics, and the Union in Question -- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- Chapter 4: Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Bibliography -- Archives -- Reports -- Interviews -- Newspapers and Non-academic Journals -- On-line Journals -- Books -- Academic Journal Articles -- Index

Graham Walker boldly recasts the debate over issues like constitutional interpretation and judicial review, and challenges contemporary thinking not only about specifically constitutional questions but also about liberalism, law, justice, and rights. Walker targets the ""skeptical"" moral nihilism of leading American judges and writers, on both the political left and right, charging that their premises undermine the authority of the Constitution, empty its moral words of any determinate meaning, and make nonsense of ostensibly normative theories. But he is even more worried about those who

This contribution to the theme of 'Scotland and the Two Irelands' looks to the relationships within these islands, east and west as well as north and south, with particular reference to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It looks to the more pluralistic circumstances and ideas of the 1990s – not least as personified in the landmark work of Bernard Crick - and considers whether revisiting these would offer new possibilities in managing relationships across these islands.

This article considers the significance of the scholarly and practical engagement with the Northern Ireland problem on the part of the Scottish politician and academic John P. Mackintosh, and the academic and controversialist Bernard Crick. it is argued that they were among the few scholars and public figures outside of Northern Ireland for whom the crisis represented a an opportunity to explore more searchingly issues with broader significance for the UK as a whole, particularly devolution, and for relations within and between the islands of Britain and Ireland. For both men Northern Ireland brought into sharp focus questions of sovereignty and identity, and of constitutional reform of the UK.

The signing of the Ulster Covenant on 28 September 1912 by almost 450,000 men and women was a powerful act of defiance on the part of Unionists in the context of what they perceived as the threat to their way of life represented by the Liberal Government's policy of Irish Home Rule. This article attempts to look beyond the well-studied leadership figures of Carson and Craig in order to fashion insights into the way Ulster Protestant society was mobilised around the Covenant and opposition to Home Rule. It draws attention to hitherto over-shadowed personalities who can be said to have exerted crucial local influence. It also contends that although pan-Protestant denominational unity provided the basis for the success of the Covenant, the Presbyterian community was particularly cohesive and purposeful in the campaign. The article further argues that the risk-taking defiance that came more easily to the Presbyterians, on account of a troubled history, largely evaporated in the new political circumstances of Northern Ireland when it became a separate devolved political entity within the UK from 1921.

A series of developments during the 2010–11 football season has led to an intense public debate over the question of the nature and extent of religious sectarianism in Scotland. The Scottish National Party (SNP) government has responded with a new piece of legislation which has been widely criticised and has prompted some commentators to speculate about a political 'own goal'. This article provides a guide to the debate around sectarianism and its historical and political dimensions. It also suggests that the Irish roots of the problem in Scotland should be properly acknowledged, and that a possible way forward could involve cooperation between Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland within the structures and procedures of the British–Irish Council (BIC).