Poynings's Law

Irish statute of 1494, introduced by Lord Deputy Edward Poynings (1459–1521), that decreed that all bills and amendments introduced in the Irish parliament must first be approved by the English Privy Council before being returned for passage in Ireland. Originally a device to curb the independence of the great feudal lords of Ireland, the act became an obstacle to effective government, and it was frequently suspended. Weakened by Yelverton's Act (1782), which asserted the power of the Irish parliament to initiate legislation, it was effectively suppressed by the Act of Union (1800).

Poynings's Law was exploited by Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth (1593–1641) in his outright attack on the Irish parliament in the 1630s, but was rarely employed in this way thereafter.