The Legal History of Wales

The various strands of Wales’s legal history—from its beginnings to the present day—are traced in this book, which identifies and assesses the importance of the native Welsh, Roman, and English influences to Wales’s legal and social identity. Explored is how Wales has been served by a variety of legal systems and laws over the last two millennia, including the civil law of Rome and the English common law. The customs of the native Welsh people are highlighted, showing how they maintained an important role not only until Wales was united legally with England in the 16th century but through to the 19th-century abolition of Wales’s own law courts, the Great Sessions. Also covered is how the separate legal identity of Wales as witnessed by its legal history has played a significant part in the rise of national consciousness and the emergence of new, distinctively Welsh legal institutions such as the National Assembly at the end of the 20th century.