Chamber and committees

That answer rather suggests that your view should prevail and not the view of the democratically elected Parliament of Scotland, which has the constitutional power to make the law.

I am no longer an advocate or spokesman for the Scottish Government. I am here as a member of the Parliament, trying to understand how, in a constitutional democracy, if the Parliament legislates for something, those who believe in the rule of law are allowed to say, “We are having nothing to do with the rule of law” in that respect; whereas there is good reason why others in the profession—for example, as you said, the Faculty of Advocates—must participate in the process.

Surely, that is the very point of your proposed boycott. You are saying that judge-only trials will somehow not be fair—

—despite the fact that they happen on countless other issues, around the country, all the time. They will be happening at this minute.

If the association believes in the rule of law, on what basis do your members have the right not to follow the rule of law?

That rather matters to Parliament as well, and especially to those of us who believe in the rule of law.

I do not follow the point that you have made in this argument. You have accepted that Parliament has the right to legislate in those areas. If that is the case, and if Parliament has decided that that is to be the structure of our criminal justice system, that is the definition of the law. I do not understand how members of the profession, who will do as you have done today and profess that they support the rule of law, can actually fulfil that and hold the position that you have set out, if the democratic institutions have decided that that is an appropriate step for us to take.

The answer that you have just given is slightly different from the ones that you gave me. Rona Mackay put to you the nature of the proposition, and you said that it is your job to make laws work, but you told me that you will not do that if the bill is enacted by Parliament. That is quite a contradiction of what you said to me in your earlier answers.

I am happy to wait.

Thank you for that answer. Does the association acknowledge that the Scottish Parliament has the constitutional power to legislate on the issues that are in the bill?