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Concept
Law of Northern Ireland
Summary
The law of Northern Ireland is the legal system of statute and common law operating in Northern Ireland since the partition of Ireland established Northern Ireland as a distinct jurisdiction in 1921. Prior to 1921, Northern Ireland was part of the same legal system as the rest of Ireland.
For the purposes of private international law, the United Kingdom is divided into three distinct legal jurisdictions: England and Wales; Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Northern Ireland is a common law jurisdiction. Although its common law is similar to that in England and Wales, and partially derives from the same sources, there are some important differences in law and procedure. Northern Irish law has its roots in Irish common law prior to the partition of Ireland in 1921 and the Acts of Union in 1801. Following the formation of the Irish Free State (which later became the Republic of Ireland), Northern Ireland became its own devolved legal jurisdiction within the United Kingdom.
The sources of Northern Irish law reflect Irish history and the various parliaments whose law affected the region down through the ages.
The Brehon Laws were a relatively sophisticated early Irish legal system, the practice of which was only finally wiped out during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The Brehon laws were a civil legal system only – there was no criminal law. Acts that would today be considered criminal were then dealt with in a similar manner to tort law today. A perpetrator would have to compensate the victim, rather than having a punishment, such as imprisonment, imposed upon him.
Ireland was the subject of the first extension of England's common law legal system outside England. While in England the creation of the common law was largely the result of the assimilation of existing customary law, in Ireland the common law was imported from England, gradually supplanting the customary law of the Irish.
Official source
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