Taking back control? Brexit and the territorial constitution of the United Kingdom

2021/02/02 by Michael Keating · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Political Systems and Governance #Irish and British Studies #Scottish History and National Identity

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13501763.2021.1876156

openalex publication_date 2021/02/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Brexit aimed to restore sovereignty to the United Kingdom. That rested on an interpretation of the UK as an internally integrated and externally bordered sovereign state. Another interpretation is that the UK is a plurinational union, in which the issue of sovereignty is contested. Devolution in 1999 left this issue in abeyance, while membership of the EU provided an external support system. Brexit removed this external support and resulting territorial tensions are exacerbated by the fact that majorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland opposed it. There have been three responses: to reconstitute the United Kingdom as a unitary state; to fragment it into its constituent parts; and to seek a differentiated Brexit. Only Northern Ireland has been granted such an exception, at the insistence of another Member State.

Citations

• The Shibboleth of Sovereignty

Cited by

• The Anglo-British imaginary and the rebuilding of the UK’s territorial constitution after Brexit: unitary state or union state?
• Devolution in the United Kingdom [wikipedia]
• Scottish Parliament [wikipedia]
• Scottish independence [wikipedia]

Related

• Brexit and Scotland
• The Anglo-British imaginary and the rebuilding of the UK’s territorial constitution after Brexit: unitary state or union state?
• The sovereignty of the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories in the Brexit era
• Negotiating Brexit: power dynamics in British intergovernmental relations
• Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit governance crisis: what to do when the post-1998 centre cannot hold