Well, it's not all good news :-(

[fredv3b]

I say so-called, because there are differences in the law in the countries of the UK. In that sense it doesn't strike me as totally "united". Scotland often does things differently from England and Wales. As an example, an area I know a little about (i.e. education) does not have a national curriculum for the UK, but four quite different sets of legal requirements; one each for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There have also been differences in the application of the law relating to civil partnerships, although these may just have been matters of timing.

Ah, I see where you are coming from. From my point of view, the fact that we are a United Kingdom does not mean that its 4 constituent nations are merged into one (admittedly from a practical point of view England and Wales can often be taken as one [dons asbestos over-garments in preparation of flaming from Welsh members of GS]). One of the express provisions of the negotiations that lead to the Acts of Union between England and Scotland in 1707 was that Scotland would retain its own Legal system and its own Education system, 300 years own they remain distinctly Scottish. You are also correct to point out differences in Civil Partnerships, my understanding (someone please correct me if I am wrong) is that these differences essentially arise out of differences in the legal systems of England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a single set of laws regarding Civil partnerships that made legal sense in England & Wales (e.g. was compatible with Inheritance law, Rules of Criminal Procedure, etc.) would simply not have made sense north of the border. I have no idea why the Government chose to have different dates from which the laws were effective from in different parts of the UK, if anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful.

Interestingly the Civil Partnerships Bill was a case of reverse devolution with regard to Scotland. A Civil Partnerships type Act was within the powers of the Hollyrood Parliament but they choose to send those powers back to Westminster. This allowed for Civil Partnerships to be pretty much equivalent in all parts of the UK (in the same way that heterosexual marriage is pretty much equivalent in all parts of the UK), the cynic in me also sees that it allowed MSPs to avoid loosing votes from religious Scots (the Scots being much more religious than the English).

Conflict of Interest:- I am half Scots though I consider myself English but am Scottish graduate.