It's had one of those for a very long time. The City of London is historically a corporation run largely by trade guilds. The City (as locals know it - London doesn't have a downtown) has its own rules.
Several in fact. One of my favourite parts of London is middle Temple, which for a period was a walled city, with its own army, that defend the rights of its lawyers to ... do lawyering. The 13th century was interesting down by the strand.
Right, and one of this sweet little cluster of neighbouring cities was Westminster, which ended up running the largest empire in history. And now, a hundred years later, arguably the City of London is more important than Westminster.
It's had one of those for a very long time. The City of London is historically a corporation run largely by trade guilds. The City (as locals know it - London doesn't have a downtown) has its own rules.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London