ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss the development of the United Kingdom as a plurinational state. In Section 2 we will explore the historical evolution of the United Kingdom and the way it was formed from the coming together of the established, or at least incipient, national societies of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In Section 3 we will discuss the recent reconfiguration of the United Kingdom brought about by the devolution of government to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and in Section 4 we will address the successes and failures of the devolution model. We will conclude in Section 5 by addressing how things might develop in the future. It is clear that the United Kingdom is not a fully formed federal state, and yet the development of devolution and the way in which the constitutional position remains open to change suggests that further constitutional developments in the coming decades will continue to shape the plurinational character of the UK in unpredictable ways.
