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“... the Platonic dream: the state which actually decides to part with some of its sovereign powers. Neil MacCormick, a distinguished constitutional theorist and a prominent Scottish nationalist, advances a theoretical and political case for a redistribution of sovereignty which would anchor Scotland politically to Western Europe. F.M. Brookfield, a New ...”

“... deficit’ under the pre-devolution Westminster system. The academic jurist and political theorist Neil MacCormick – son of John MacCormick, the founding father of Scottish nationalist politics – began to explore the limits of sovereignty in an era of international organisations, intergovernmental blocs, regional ...”

“... through the ideology of lawyers, as an obstacle to the pursuit of progressive social policies. Neil MacCormick’s Rhetoric and the Rule of Law: A Theory of Legal Reasoning aims to moderate both poles in this debate: to temper the lawyer’s enthusiasm for legal certainty, while insisting on the very great importance of the rule of law as an ideal ...”

“... restatement of Diceyan orthodoxy to take account of the brute fact of Union was the work of Sir Neil MacCormick, a leading figure in the SNP until his death in 2009. MacCormick sat in the European Parliament, held the Regius Chair of Public Law at the University of Edinburgh, and, unsurprisingly, was a valued counsel ...”

“... all, the SNP’s leaders are sufficiently well versed in the jurisprudence of their late colleague Neil MacCormick, the professor of public law at Edinburgh and another gradualist, to perceive the ‘post-sovereignty’ parameters of 21st-century interdependence. But did Cameron really blunder? Probably, insofar as he takes seriously his responsibilities ...”

“... of the SNP – inspired by the party’s in-house legal philosopher, the late Neil MacCormick – had come to embrace interdependence and shared sovereignty. The Anglo-Scottish Union is on life support, and I can see only one way to preserve it: what might be called the ‘reverse Greenland’ solution. Greenland is a self-governing ...”