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The United Kingdom has three distinctly different[1] legal systems, each of which derives from a particular geographical area for a variety of historical reasons: English law, Scots law, Northern Ireland law,[2] and, since 2007, calls for a fourth type, that of purely Welsh law as a result of Welsh devolution, with further calls for a Welsh justice system.[3][4][5]
In fulfilment of its former EU treaty obligations, European Union directives were actively transposed into the UK legal systems under the UK parliament's law-making power. Upon Brexit, EU law was transplanted into domestic law as "retained EU law", though the UK remained temporarily in alignment with EU regulations during the transition period from 31 January to 31 December 2020.