ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ ПРОЦЕССЫ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ МИРЕ AFTER THE REFERENDUM: “RULE, BRITANNIA” OR “SCOTLAND THE BRAVE”? <...> A. Gamper The Department of Public Laws, State and Administrative Theory University of Innsbruck Innrain 52d, 10th floor, A–6020, Innsbruck, Austria The article analyzes referendum on independence of Scotland in the context of democratic approach to claims for independence of different regions in Europe. <...> On 18 September 2014, the question „Should Scotland be an independent country?“ was submitted to the Scottish (remarkably, not the whole UK) electorate in a referendum. <...> With a turnout of 84,6% (of more than 4 million persons registered for the referendum), 55,25% voted against, 44,65% for independence. <...> The two alternative answers that could be chosen were just „yes“ and „no“, while there was no option to combine answer „no“ with a request for more devolution. <...> In his speech on the day after the referendum, however, the Prime Minister did not only refer to the United Kingdom as a country consisting of four different nations, but also announced new legislation on devolution — rightly assessing, it appears, that both many of those in favour of independence and of those against it would expect Scottish autonomy to be strengthened. <...> As Scotland has already been given more powers under devolution than either Wales or Northern Ireland [2; 13], an increase of Scottish powers would also increase existing constitutional asymmetries between these regions. <...> England, moreover, might be concerned even more particularly, as, despite its importance, it is the only remaining region without regional autonomy, apart from the specific metropolitan autonomy granted to Greater London: (1) The originally intended autonomy for parts of Northern England had been rejected by a popular consultation in 2004. <...> The Prime Minister’s promise to submit draft legislation by the beginning of 2015 thus extended not only to new powers for Scotland, but included plans for autonomy for all parts of the United Kingdom. <...> This announcement is not only highly ambitious in political terms, but also poses enormous legal challenges. <...> Previous legislation on devolution was enacted through Acts 23 Вестник РУДН, серия Политология, 2015, № 1 of Parliament that specifically related to the respective region, and these would have to be amended (2). <...> A strengthening of Scottish powers would, however, raise further problems <...>