England and Wales

England and Wales represents as a phrase the greater part of the United Kingdom; it is the area which was formerly the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union 1707 which created Great Britain, namely the combined area of England and Wales.

This area is a legal jurisdiction, the largest in the United Kingdom, and in that context 'England and Wales' is spoken as a singular noun. In England and Wales runs the legal system, known as English law, separate from Scottish law in Scotland and the law of Northern Ireland. England and Wales also forms a statistical unit for various purposes. The three remain separate as a result of the Treaty of Union of 1707 which insisted on the preservation of Scotland's distinct law and legal system, which had developed to a high standard in the years leading up to the Union.

Wales has a devolved National Assembly, which was created in 1999 by the Government of Wales Act 1998 and though since then the Assembly has gained powers to make secondary and in some cases primary legislation, this has not resulted in a division of the jurisdiction, which accordingly has a single court system and legal profession.

After Edward I put down the last native principality in Wales, nevertheless Wales was not incorporated with England and Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the days of Henry VIII. The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 then disbanded the feudal marcher lordships and Wales was annexed to England and to its laws. In the nineteenth century, certain legislation began to be applied differently in Wales, requiring a differentiation between Wales and England, or sometime "Wales and Monmouthshire" and the rest of England, and this led in time to the terminology "England and Wales".