Country name:Conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Conventional short form: United Kingdom 
Abbreviation: UK 
Note - Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales

Government type: Constitutional monarchy

Capital: London

Independence:England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927

Constitution:Unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

Legal system:Common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental influences; has nonbinding judicial review of Acts of Parliament under the Human Rights Act of 1998; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:18 years of age; universal

Source: The World Factbook

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