Scotland and the European probation rules: an opportunity to ‘reintegrate’?

This paper concerns the European Probation Rules (EPRs), adopted in 2010 by the Council of Europe to set standards and expectations for the practice and institutions of community sanctions. It is developed from our work updating the Scottish chapter of the Confederation of European Probation’s handbook Probation in Europe.

We found that the procedures and institutions of Scottish community sanctions exhibit considerable conformity to the EPRs and European norms generally - yet this is barely acknowledged, let alone celebrated, within Scotland. This is incongruous in a country where the governing Scottish National Party has been keen to emphasise Scotland’s ‘Europeanness’ and open in advocating Scotland become independent of the UK and return to the EU.

We consider the possible explanations for this in Scotland’s status as a devolved power within a former EU member state, the implications for ‘nation-building’ penal policy, and the possible opportunities and challenges for more overt ‘re-integration’ with Europe.