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A summary of recent constitutional reform in the United Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Lesley Dingle  and
Bradley Miller
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Extract

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Legislative competence for the UK resides in the Westminster Parliament, but there are three legal systems (England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) with separate courts and legal professions. These legal systems have a unified final court of appeal in the House of Lords. The Isle of Man, and the two Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey) are not part of the UK, but possessions of the crown. Although their citizens are subject to the British Nationality Act 1981, the islands have their own legal systems. They are represented by the UK government for the purposes of international relations, but are not formal members of the European Union.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , Spring 2005 , pp. 71 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the International Association of Law Libraries. 

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