A Bizarre Anomaly? Rights of Political Participation and the Scottish Independence Referendum: Moohan v Lord Advocate

In Moohan v Lord Advocate the United Kingdom Supreme Court has, in the context of a case challenging the exclusion of convicted prisoners from voting in the Scottish Independence Referendum, confirmed the orthodox view that Article 3 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights does not guarantee rights of participation beyond voting for membership of an established legislature and, specifically, does not extend to voting in referendums. Two strong dissents in the case recognise the democratic weakness of this position and argue that the Strasbourg position is not as absolute as it may seem and that article 3 can properly be interpreted to include referendums in its scope, particularly those which relate to the right of self-determination