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Wales has been served by a variety of legal systems and laws over the last two millennia. These include the civil law of Rome, which was to be the basis of the laws of much of modern Europe, and the English common law, which was to govern much of the English-speaking world. Alongside these influences, the customs of the native Welsh people 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. Since then, 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, distinctly Welsh, legal institutions, such as the National Assembly, at the end of the 20th century. This book traces the various strands of Wales's legal history from its beginnings, identifying and assessing the importance of native Welsh, Roman and English influences to Wales's legal social identity.
