Sarah Nason of Bangor University, after referring to the Welsh government’s view that the present position cannot continue, shows how Wales is developing its own sub-state constitution and where that might lead.
Nicola McEwen of Edinburgh University, against a pluralist conception of nationhood, places under scrutiny the unity of the United Kingdom and identifies powerful forces of disunity threatening the whole.
Professor Christopher McCrudden, from Queen’s University Belfast, argues that trust in the Union has significantly disappeared judged by a set of criteria: consent, material self-interest, individual and collective rights, and emotional attachment.
Richard W. Clary, from Harvard Law School, provides a summary of the model of American federalism and of the lessons to be learned from this system.
Professor Alison Young, from Cambridge University, provides a possible answer to the English question – the role of England in a devolved United Kingdom.
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.
