Common use of An Overview Clause in Contracts

An Overview. The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) and Northern Ireland. Its capital city is London and its official language is English. Politically, the country is a unitary parliamentary democracy state5 with a constitutional monarchy system6. The head of the United Kingdom is the Queen7 and the head of Government is the Prime Minister. The United Kingdom Parliament comprises two houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The United Kingdom legal system is governed by three distinct systems of laws: (1) English and Welsh law, which applies in England and Wales, (2) Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, and (3) Scots law, which applies in Scotland. The English, Welsh and Northern Ireland laws are based on common law principles. However, the Scots law is a pluralistic system based on civil law principles with common law elements.8 The UK is a member state of European Union, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and a member of the World Trade Organization, among many others.9 Economically, the United Kingdom is the eighth largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity.10 It is a developed country with traditional industries including iron, steel production, coalmining, shipbuilding, aircraft, and textiles. Other industries include, to name a few, automobile manufacturing, electronic products, food processing, and chemicals. The 5 The unitary system, in contrast to a federal system, is a system whereby a sovereign state is governed as one single unit in which the central government is supreme and any sub-national units exercise only such powers as the central government chooses to delegate. Around the end of 1997, devolution took place in the United Kingdom Governmental system. This involved transferring a range of powers from the United Kingdom central government to its sub-national units. In this case, the United Kingdom Parliament transferred powers involving matters of education and health, among others, to its national parliament or assemblies: the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. However, the scope of those powers differs between each political institution. With respect to the country’s national policy on matters such as foreign affairs, defence, social security and trade, they remain the United Kingdom Government’s responsibility. For more information refer ▇▇▇▇://▇▇.▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇.▇▇▇/wiki/Unitary_state; read also ▇▇▇▇▇, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, ▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇, and others, “An Introduction to Devolution in the UK”, Research Paper 03/84, 17 November 2003, House of Commons Library, at ▇▇▇▇://▇▇▇.▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇.▇▇/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2003/rp03-084.pdf, all accessed: 21 January 2013. 6 A constitutional monarchy system is a form of government in which a monarch acts as a head of state within the parameter of a constitution.