From the standpoint of international law, the United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland is a single, sovereign state. From an internal standpoint, the situation is more complicated. The Westminster Parliament is sovereign over the entire U.K., but Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have, throughout their history, enjoyed varying degrees of political and legal autonomy, if not legal sovereignty.
In recent years this autonomy has increased through devolution, an attempt to establish control at the regional level over areas of jurisdiction thought to benefit most from local input.
The purpose of this guide is to introduce both traditional sources of regional law within the U.K., and new sources that record the law created by newly devolved legal institutions.
Devolution statutes and other statutes constituting the current state of autonomous institutions in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are available electronically in Oxford's Constitutions of Dependencies and Territories of the World. They are also available in HeinOnline's World Constitutions Illustrated, under the heading "United Kingdom."
