I have a non-copyable (inherited from boost::noncopyable) class that I use as a custom namespace. Also, I have another class, that uses previous one, as shown here: #include <boost/utility.hpp> #include <cmath> template< typename F > struct custom_namespace : boost::noncopyable { F sqrt_of_half(F const & x) const { using std::sqrt; return sqrt(x / F(2.0L)); } // ... maybe others are not so dummy const/constexpr methods }; template< typename F > class custom_namespace_user { static ::custom_namespace< F > const custom_namespace_; public : F poisson() const { return custom_namespace_.sqrt_of_half(M_PI); } static F square_diagonal(F const & a) { return a * custom_namespace_.sqrt_of_half(1.0L); } }; template< typename F > ::custom_namespace< F > const custom_namespace_user< F >::custom_namespace_(); this code leads to the next error (even without instantiation): error: no 'const custom_namespace custom_namespace_user::custom_namespace_()' member function declared in class 'custom_namespace_user' The next way is not legitimate: template< typename F ::custom_namespace< F const custom_namespace_user< F ::custom_namespace_ = ::custom_namespace< F (); What should I do to declare this two classes (first as noncopyable static const member class of second)? Is this feaseble?