The second panel of Putney Debates 2021 concentrated on the unity of the UK, and panellists debated the issue from perspectives of the the UK as a whole and four nations.

The first session of Putney Debates 2021 discussed the models of national unity, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Spain, and Italy.

Professor Sionaidh Douglas-Scott’s lecture considers the unity and disunity of the UK. It discusses the diverse histories of the four nations of the UK and what it means to characterize the UK as a ‘union’ rather than a ‘unitary’ State.

Spain has suffered in the last two decades a very high separation tension. In this lecture, professor Roberto Galán-Vioque explains what happened in Spain and what caused its separatist tensions.

In this lecture, professor Francesco Bilancia discusses the constitutional contemporary architecture of the Italian State-regions relations as implemented by the 1999 constitutional reform.