Paragraph 52

 

To take an example of state practice on referendums in a non-federal state, in the United Kingdom it was readily accepted that those voting in referendums on the future structure of government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would be those named in the current electoral register as the electorate for the territory in question. There was no attempt to provide e.g. Scottish people resident in London with the right to take part in the referendum on devolution to Scotland or, conversely, to exclude English people resident in Scotland from this vote. The practice in Switzerland in the referendums leading to the setting up of the canton of Jura is also interesting in this context. In Switzerland, there not only exists a citizenship of the cantons but also of the municipalities. When referendums were organised in a part of the canton of Berne in order to ask citizens whether they would like to create a new canton (this process led to the creation of the canton of Jura), the Swiss citizens residing in the concerned territory were allowed to vote, whatever their municipal citizenship, while the citizens of these municipalities residing outside this territory were not.