Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. La questione: alcuni interrogativi preliminari. – 2. Struttura dello stato britannico e invenzione della frontiera. – 3. Quali frontiere per il Regno Unito? I. La frontiera transoceanica: il Commonwealth. – 4. II. La frontiera transbritannica: l’Éire. – 5. Dal cleavage alla cooperazione: il caso nordirlandese. – 6. Le nuove frontiere: Unione Europea e devolution. – 7. Princìpi di «devolution estera» e loro proiezioni europee. – 8. Conclusioni.

Abstract

One of the most astonishing fearures of British peculiarity is the variability of the meaning of the term «frontier», being a rather unusual term for an island whose insularity is mainly a cultural, self-confident dimension. The reflection on some different ways of interpreting the identity of Britain may help to focus some different meanings of the word. No mention of the most apparent internal frontiers coming from history (like the Scottish Border), as a member of a great family of English-speaking countries the first United Kingdom’s frontier is a worldwide one, and the Commonwealth is the international organization that gives a shape to this basic idea of the British frontier. Secondly, as a regional leading power the United Kingdom shares a very troubled frontier indeed with the Republic of Ireland, the Ulster question being the main field of a sharp division but also of an intense dialogue that found its apex in the Good Friday’s Agreement of 1998. And thirdly, the European frontier is a highly significant one. Which kinds of cross-border cooperation can be pictured accordingly? And which sub-statal units or institutions can cope successfully with the challenges coming from such different ideas of «the British frontier»? The first part of the article is an attempt to set out which kind of cross-border cooperative activity the United Kingdon can perform across the different borders, being not necessarily territorial ones in the strict sense of the word. The second part is a survey of which ranges of foreign powers can be actually exerted by sub-statal units, and namely by devolved institutions (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the forthcoming English regions) within the current relationships between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and the European Union relationships, and of how far the working devolution may help to do all that.