England is a constituent part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), the political union between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The UK is a sovereign state. Key dates in its development are:
1535 and 1542 – Under the Laws in Wales Acts, Wales is incorporated within the English legal system.
1603 – England and Scotland become two kingdoms with a shared monarch, with the Union of the Crowns.
1707 – England and Scotland become a single all-island Kingdom of Great Britain, with the Act of Union.
1801 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland comes into being.
1922 – Following the partition of Ireland, 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland become an independent state, while the 6 northern counties remain part of what becomes the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The UK does not have a single codified constitution; instead, the constitution is formed from several sources, including statute, common or case law, and international treaties.
British monarchs were executive monarchs until the end of the seventeenth century, meaning that they had the right to make and pass legislation. Even then, they had to act in accordance with the law and take into account the will of the people. For example, with the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, the leading noblemen of England succeeded in forcing King John to accept that they and other freemen had rights against the Crown.
In the seventeenth century, the Stuart kings propagated the theory of the divine right of kings, claiming that the sovereign was subject only to God and not to the law. Widespread unrest against their rule led to civil war in the second half of the seventeenth century. In 1688-9, Parliamentarians drew up a Bill of Rights, which established basic tenets such as the supremacy of Parliament.
The constitutional monarchy in existence today developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as day-to-day power came to be exercised by Ministers in Cabinet, and by Parliaments elected by a steadily-widening electorate.
The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 made the voting age for both men and women 21 years of age, leading to an equal and universal adult franchise. The voting age was lowered to 18 by the Representation of the People Act 1969 (subsequently consolidated into the Representation of the People Act 1983).
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were granted devolved powers in 1998. The first elections for the devolved authorities took place in 1999. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now have powers to administer their domestic affairs, although they retain representation in the UK Parliament. The UK Parliament retains the power to legislate for the UK as a whole, to amend devolution acts, and to legislate on anything that has been devolved. However, it will not normally do so without the agreement of the devolved governments.
The Scottish independence referendum, conducted in September 2014, asked whether Scotland should be an independent country. The result was that 55.3% of the electorate voted against independence and Scotland remains part of the UK.
Unlike Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, England has no separate devolved government.
At the time of writing (January 2019), the United Kingdom (UK), rather than its constituent parts (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), is a member state of the European Union (EU).
The UK did not join the European Communities when first established in the 1950s. It was thought that membership might weaken Britain's strong trade links with other countries in the Commonwealth, which gave access to cheaper food, and its strong political links with the United States of America. The international trading tradition created a feeling that the UK was separate from mainland Europe, and there was opposition from many people who thought that conceding power to any outside body meant loss of national sovereignty.
As a consequence, the UK was initially more interested in creating a European free trade area which would involve no sacrifice of national sovereignty. This led to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) being created in 1959 by Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. However, it was not long before the UK realised that it risked economic and political isolation if it remained outside the European Community, although it took more than ten years and several negotiations before the UK achieved membership in 1973. A referendum affirmed this membership in 1975.
The UK is not a member of the Eurozone and retains its own currency – pound sterling (GBP).
On 23 June 2016 a referendum on European Union membership was held. The people of the UK voted with a majority of 51.9% to leave the EU.
The Department for Exiting the European Union was created and is responsible for overseeing negotiations to leave the EU, and for establishing the future relationship between the UK and the EU. The Government set out its priorities for the negotiations in a White Paper published in February 2017 and, in March 2017, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 was passed in order to implement the referendum result.
On 29 March 2017, the Government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, beginning the formal process of the UK leaving the EU. The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill 2017-2019 was introduced to Parliament in July 2017. This legislation is intended to prepare the UK’s statutes for the day that the UK leaves the EU, which is set as 29 March 2019.
The www.parliament.uk website provides further information on the process of the UK leaving the EU.
Article last reviewed January 2019.