The creation of the Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Act 1998 was without doubt a momentous political, constitutional and social happening in Scotland. The zeitgeist was captured at the first meeting of the Parliament in May 1999 by Dr Winnie Ewing, its most senior member, when she declared that “The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on 25 March 1707, is hereby reconvened”. Although the constitutional actuality of the new Scottish Parliament, which exercises law-making competence subject to the statutory authority of the UK Parliament, is very different from that of the Scottish Parliament of 1707, which was the legislature of an independent nation state, the spring of 1999 was undoubtedly the beginning of a new political and constitutional era for the people of Scotland.

The objective of this collection of essays is to offer critical analysis of the first ten years of law making by the Scottish Parliament in a number of key areas, putting it into its wider policy and socio-legal context. As is inevitably the case in a collection of essays, individual topics are addressed on a subject-by-subject basis and, while a certain amount of the content is necessarily narrative in nature, the bulk of the content is critical and analytical. Each chapter is written by a leading expert in his or her field. Contributors were invited to subject the key legislative themes in their own areas to rigorous critical analysis and also, in this context, to consider whether the Parliament has achieved what had been hoped for when it was established by the Scotland Act.