The previous two chapters have discussed what might loosely be termed the ‘political’ aspects of the SNP's draft Constitution: the parliament and the government, or legislative and executive branches. This chapter goes on to discuss the legal and substantive aspects of the draft Constitution.

A recurring theme of this chapter is that the 2002 draft Constitution is a ‘procedural’ document. It is thin on rhetoric and is based upon no specific foundational or teleological ideology, beyond a commitment to the procedures of democracy and to a relatively generic set of human rights. The chapter argues that this is a prudent course of action, in so far as it concerns the substantive content of the Constitution.

Nationalism, Statehood, Citizenship, Religion and Identity

As well as establishing the institutions of government and defining the rights of citizens, modern Constitutions often have nation-building and regime-defining functions. As such, a typical modern constitution proclaims what the country stands for, and what it will not stand for. It reflects the values, aspirations and identity of the nation; it says who ‘we the people’ are, what we hold in common and where we are going.

In many cases, these symbolic and formative functions are performed by a preamble. Preambles (or preamble-like opening provisions) are the point at which the ‘presumptive ends’ of a Constitution meet ‘the particular means’ that the Constitution establishes; there the authors of a Constitution ‘proclaim their intentions’ and ‘communicate their deepest aspirations for the newly created polity’.

For a Constitution which is supposedly the product of a ‘nationalist’ party, the SNP's 2002 draft Constitution is curiously devoid of what might be called nation-defining features. There is no preamble. It gets straight down to the prosaic text of institutional regulation, without either rhetorical flourishes or theoretical posturing. Moreover, except for a declaration of the sovereignty of the people, the text contains no explicit theory of government on which the state is based, nor any mention of the ultimate ends of the polity. There are no provisions regulating such symbolic matters as the national flag, state emblem or anthem.