SUB-STATE CONSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY AND THE UNITED KINGDOM’S PLURAL CONSTITUTION

Nyatanga, Darryn ORCID: 0009-0009-7302-4322 (2026) SUB-STATE CONSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY AND THE UNITED KINGDOM’S PLURAL CONSTITUTION The Cambridge Law Journal. ISSN 0008-1973, 1469-2139

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Abstract

This article examines how the devolved legislatures of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have developed distinct institutional, normative, and conflict-based constitutional identities that position them as constitutional actors within the United Kingdom’s territorial order. Moving beyond analyses focused solely on competence allocation and the Sewel Convention, it argues that devolved identity is articulated through institutional design, claims to democratic legitimacy, and episodes of contestation with Westminster. Disputes arising from Brexit, the UK Internal Market Act 2020, rights-based legislation, and the Northern Ireland Protocol reveal how devolved institutions frame authority in terms of popular sovereignty, civic nationhood, consent, and parity of esteem. While parliamentary sovereignty remains legally intact, these developments expose a widening gap between doctrinal hierarchy and constitutional practice. The article contends that the UK now operates as a differentiated constitutional system in which authority is legally centralised yet politically dispersed across multiple constitutional sites.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > Faculty of Humanities & Social Sci (All T&R Staff) Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	17 Apr 2026 10:08
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2026 10:08
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3198010
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