English Law

This guide covers the law of England and Wales.  Like the U.S., England has a common law system.  However, there are several major differences:

• England has no written constitution.
• There is no official codification of English statutes.
• Laws passed by Parliament are not subject to review by the courts; only Parliament may change a law that it has enacted.

The conquest of Wales by Edward I of England took place between 1277 and 1283.  Technically, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland were "united" in 1707, but the Kingdom of Great Britain was the result.  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland gives us the namesake in the year 1801.  In 1922, the Irish Free State was established and the union renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927.  This leaves us with a lot of history and three distinct jurisdictions remaining within the union, England and Wales, and Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have their own parliaments and sources of law not considered here.