Northern Ireland law
Northern Ireland law refers to the legal system of statute and common law operating in Northern Ireland since the partition of Ireland established Northern Ireland as a separate jurisdiction within the United Kingdom in 1921.
For the purposes of private international law the United Kingdom is divided into three distinct legal jurisdictions: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 between Northern Ireland and England and Wales. While influenced by English law, the Northern Ireland legal system is distinctive for a number of reasons: it has roots in Irish common law prior to Irish independence in 1921; following Irish independence, Northern Ireland became a devolved jurisdiction within the United Kingdom.
Dissident Irish Republican campaign
Since the 1169 invasion of Ireland by Norman knights at the request of ousted King of Leinster Dermot MacMurrough, Ireland has, in part or in whole, been under English, and later British, administration. Rebellions against rule from Great Britain were unsuccessful until 1919–1921's Anglo-Irish War, when the original Irish Republican Army (IRA) succeeded in removing 26 of Ireland's 32 counties from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as the Irish Free State. Although previously, the offer of Irish Home rule was agreed in the third Home Rule Bill, implementation was suspended by violent opposition in Ulster and the forming of the UVF, and later by the outbreak of the First World War. Following the partition of Ireland by the Crown, the remaining six counties, located in the province of Ulster, became Northern Ireland and remained a part of the renamed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.