British Isles naming dispute "British-Irish Isles" and the Islands of the North Atlantic. In documents drawn up jointly between the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is referred to simply as "these islands". To some, the dispute is partly semantic, and the term is a value-free geographic one, while, to others, it is a value-laden political one. The Crown dependencies of the Channel Islands may also for geo-political reasons be included in the British Isles, despite not being geographically part of the archipelago. United Kingdom law uses the term British Islands to refer to the UK, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man as a
Politics in the British Isles dependencies participate. Additionally, there are numerous relations between the countries in the British Isles, including formal and informal bilateral and multilateral relations between Ireland, the devolved administrations of the UK, and the crown dependencies, as well as shared cultural and economic links. The British Isles contain two sovereign states: The archipelago also contains three Crown dependencies: The Crown dependencies are constitutionally linked to the United Kingdom but independent of it. Ireland is a parliamentary republic comprising approximately five sixths of the island of Ireland in the west of the archipelago. The island of Ireland was partitioned in 1920 with the