Northern Ireland remains a part of the United Kingdom until or unless a majority vote in a referendum determines otherwise.

The assembly has the power of modifying any act of the British Parliament as far as it "is part of the law of Northern Ireland".

[1] They cannot deal, however, with reserved or excepted matters, which are of exclusive competence of the government of the United Kingdom, in consultation with the Republic of Ireland through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

[2][3] The Assembly has been suspended a number of times since 1998, and was re-established on Tuesday 8 May 2007, subsequent to the St Andrews Agreement of 2006.

Election to the assembly is by single transferable vote (STV), a form of proportional representation.