Law of the United Kingdom

English and Welsh law (or just English law) refers to the

Main article:

Proposed Wales criminal justice system

Welsh law is the primary and secondary legislation generated by the Senedd, using the devolved authority granted in the Government of Wales Act 2006, amended substantially by Wales Act 2014 and Wales Act 2017, and in effect since May 2007. Each piece of Welsh legislation is known as an Act of Senedd Cymru.

As there is no criminal law within contemporary Welsh law, Wales is not generally considered a fourth jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. This is because the judiciary and the courts follow England and Wales law, which is made by the

A commission set up in 2017 by the

The law of Northern Ireland is a common law system. It is administered by the courts of Northern Ireland, with ultimate appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in both civil and criminal matters. The law of Northern Ireland is closely similar to English law, the rules of common law having been imported into the Kingdom of Ireland under English rule. However, there are important differences.

The sources of the law of Northern Ireland are Irish common law, and statute law. Of the latter, statutes of the Parliaments of Ireland, of the United Kingdom and of Northern Ireland are in force, and latterly statutes of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. The courts of Northern Ireland are headed by the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland, consisting of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, the Northern Ireland High Court of Justice and the Northern Ireland Crown Court.

Below that are county courts and magistrates' courts. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction and often has persuasive effect in its other jurisdictions.

Scotland

Scots law is a unique legal system with an ancient basis in

Since the formation of the

Under the

The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases,^[17] and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases.^[18] The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law, with leave to appeal from the Court of Session not required as a general rule.^[19] However, unlike in the rest of the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court has no role as the highest court of appeal for Scottish criminal cases: this is forbidden by Article XIX of the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England.^[20]

In very rare circumstances, the High Court of Justiciary can create new criminal offences without reference to Parliament, using its declaratory power to do so.

The

Retained EU law (REUL) is a category of law in the United Kingdom created at the end of the transition period following the UK's withdrawal from the EU. REUL includes EU legislation which was "cut and pasted" into domestic law, along with certain domestic laws whose role was to implement EU regulations and directives. The objective of REUL is to maintain "legislative continuity".^[23]

Courts and tribunals

The

In Scotland, the chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases. Sheriff courts, as they deal with both criminal and civil caseloads, have no equivalent outside Scotland.

Certain tribunals for administrative law cases have UK-wide jurisdiction, notably those dealing with immigration—the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and Special Immigration Appeals Commission—military and national security, competition and intellectual property, and a few others. Similarly, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has jurisdiction throughout Great Britain but not in Northern Ireland.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British Overseas Territories, and the British Crown Dependencies.

United Kingdom legislatures

United Kingdom Parliament

The

The House of Lords includes two different types of members: The Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage). Its members are not elected by the population at large.

The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the

The Northern Ireland Assembly (

The Scottish Parliament (

The original Parliament of Scotland (or "Estates of Scotland") was the national legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland and existed from the early thirteenth century until the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[31] As a consequence, the Parliament of Scotland merged with the Parliament of England, to form the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London.^[31]

Senedd

Since 2007, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Senedd Cymru), previously known as the 'National Assembly for Wales', has been invested with legislative powers. It is situated in Cardiff. The Senedd, first elected in 1999, is a democratically elected body of 60 members who are known as Members of the Senedd or MSs. Members are elected for five-year terms under the Additional Member System of proportional representation. 40 MSs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality voting system ("first past the post"). 20 are returned from five additional member regions. Each region elects four MSs.

Related legal systems

After centuries of settlement and conquest, the United Kingdom has legal relationships to many territories outside its borders. These include sovereign states that do and do not share a monarch and judicial institutions with the UK, and dependencies where the UK government, parliament, and crown do retain some power.

Independent sovereign states with British legal history

Most

Some countries were granted independence by an act of the UK parliament (for example, the Statute of Westminster 1931) and have likewise diverged from UK law either under or after British rule. An example at the other end of the spectrum, despite occasional control for geopolitical reasons, British law had little impact on the law of Afghanistan.

Independent sovereign states with shared institutions

By special agreement, the UK-based

Commonwealth realms

Commonwealth realms, for example Australia, are former colonies that are now sovereign states fully independent of the UK parliament. However, they share other legal institutions with the UK, to varying degrees.

Crimes in Commonwealth realms are prosecuted in the name of the crown, and the crown remains the notional arbiter of disputes. In some realms appeals may be directed to the monarch as a last resort. Adjudication of these appeals is delegated to Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which draws judges from the UK and across the Commonwealth. In other realms, a domestic court has been made the highest court of appeal. See Judicial Committee of the Privy Council § Overseas jurisdiction for full list.

The "Imperial" Privy Council based in England advises the shared monarch on the use of

• Federal Executive Council (Australia)
• King's Privy Council for Canada
• Executive Council of New Zealand

Similar to other former colonies, Commonwealth realms also share a common legal history with the UK. For example, Canada underwent a long period of patriation of its constitution, beginning with the

The

Residents of the dependencies do not have representation in the UK Parliament. UK law does not apply to the dependencies unless explicitly stated, and such laws are almost always executed by the monarch in the form of an Order in Council. Whether the UK Parliament retains the power to pass laws against the will of the local governments is disputed,^{[citation needed]} and was tested with the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 (c. 41).^{[citation needed]}

Legal cases may be appealed to the

British Overseas Territories

Though not considered internal to the boundaries of United Kingdom, the UK maintains control over British Overseas Territories. Unlike Commonwealth realms, BOTs fall within the Monarchy of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the court of final appeal. Three of the BOT are uninhabited, and Akrotiri and Dhekelia is military property; in these places, the UK government rules directly and on all matters.

The inhabited British Overseas Territories do not have representation in the UK parliament, and are thus on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. Gibraltar, prior to Brexit, was the only BOT which was a part of the European Union, and residents voted for a representative in the European Parliament in the South West England district. Prior to Brexit all citizens of British Overseas Territories were EU citizens, even though European Union law only applied in Gibraltar and the United Kingdom proper.

The inhabited territories each have their own legal system, based largely on English common law, with autonomy varying considerably with the size of the population. For example, Bermuda, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands are autonomously governed by their locally elected parliaments, with the UK responsible only for defence and foreign affairs and granting limited autonomy to local governments to have relations with other countries and international organizations. On the sparsely populated Pitcairn Islands, the representative of the UK government has nearly unlimited powers.

Citizenship and nationality law is governed by the UK parliament. Immigration is controlled by local governments. The UK parliament retains the ultimate legislative power, and ensures good governance.

See also

References