Legal ideas of political importance

That is why last week’s conference on the constitutional status of the Channel Islands and the ways in which it might develop, through choice or necessity, was such an important one.

The issues and ideas discussed at the event, organised by the Jersey and Guernsey Law Review, are necessarily complex and a touch esoteric but they must be aired if they are not to become even more obscure through neglect or lack of understanding.

Indeed, so fundamental are these rarified constitutional considerations to everything we understand about the Island and hope for that they merit a much wider public debate. The conference, entitled Dependency or Sovereignty, continued impressively to prepare the ground for such debate to emerge.

The current relationship between UK and Crown Dependencies is, it must be emphasised, generally cordial and constructive but there is undoubtedly potential for conflicts of interest and misunderstanding.

Past events, such as the UK’s unilateral imposition of the Edwards inquiry into the dependencies’ regulation of their finance industries, are proof that difficulties can arise.

We must, however, remember that the main promoter of the sovereignty debate, former Bailiff Sir Philip Bailhache, has been at great pains to emphasise that he is not engaged in some kind of breakaway initiative. Rather, he is encouraging prudent consideration of the options for future relations with the UK, the EU and the rest of the world before rapidly changing events force unwelcome change upon us.

There is certainly no groundswell of public opinion in favour of any kind of break with the status quo and no sign of any political momentum in that direction. In fact, one of the most striking features of last week’s sovereignty conference was the total lack of participation by politicians.

Granted, States Members were fully occupied with the week-long Business Plan and the unaccustomed quest for spending cuts instead of spending plans, but their absence was noted.

Indeed, some might wonder why so much of the running is being made in this vital area by the Island’s legal establishment, with the close participation of the finance industry, rather than by visionary politicians capable of creating a new place in the world for these small and special islands.

Political involvement at some stage and at some level is certainly desirable – indeed essential – particularly in respect of one concrete idea floated at the conference, the advancement of the Bailiwicks’ common interests through a federation of the Channel Islands.