Constitution of the United Kingdom from the state, which was confirmed by the Church of Scotland Act 1921. England and Wales share the same legal system, while Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own distinct systems. These distinctions arose prior to and were retained after the unions according to the terms of the 1706 Treaty of Union, ratified by the 1707 Acts of Union, and the Acts of Union 1800. Reforms since 1997 have decentralised the UK by setting up a devolved Scottish Parliament and assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK was formed as a unitary state, though Scotland and England retained
Acts of Union 1707 were unhappy about the prospect, however. English overseas possessions made England very wealthy in comparison to Scotland, a poor country with few roads, very little industry and almost no Navy. This made some view unification as a markedly unequal relationship. In Scotland, some claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from the financial disaster wrought by the Darien scheme through English assistance and the lifting of measures put in place through the Alien Act to force the Scottish Parliament into compliance with the Act of Settlement. The combined votes of the Court party with a majority of the Squadrone