England and Wales
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England and Wales is a legal unit within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales follows the legal system known as English law, and the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. England and Wales are therefore treated as a single unit (see state) in private international law.
The devolved National Assembly for Wales (Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) was created in 1999 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under the Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales, including powers to amend English law from Parliament. These powers were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006, and the Welsh Assembly Government can now propose and pass its own laws.
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[edit] History
The Roman occupation of Britain was the first period in which the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit (with the exception of the land to the north of Hadrian's Wall). At the time, Wales and England were not separate countries: all the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages and were all regarded as Britons divided into numerous tribes. After the conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit, the province of Britannia.
Welsh law developed from this base. It was first codified by Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good; reigned 942–950) when he was king of most of Wales. The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 replaced Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century.
[edit] Law
England and Wales are treated as a single unit, for most purposes, because the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The continuance of Scots law was guaranteed under the 1706 Treaty of Union that led to the Acts of Union 1707, and as a consequence English law (and after 1801, Irish law) also continued to be separate. Exceptions include the Welsh language acts of 1967 and 1993 and also Government of Wales Act 1998, plus Measures of the Welsh Assembly passed since 2006 which apply in Wales but not in England.
Wales was brought under a common monarch with England through conquest with the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and annexed to England for legal purposes by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. However, references in legislation for 'England' were still taken as excluding Wales. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 meant that in all future laws, 'England' would by default include Wales (and Berwick-upon-Tweed). This was later repealed in 1967 (for Wales, but not for Berwick) and current laws use "England and Wales" to refer to the legal entity. The term "principality" has sometimes been informally applied to the whole of modern Wales, although the Principality of Wales correctly refers only to the northern and western parts of Wales during the period between the 13th and 16th centuries.[1]
Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Crown dependencies (the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey, each with its own legal system), are separate units for the conflict of laws (although they are not separate states under public international law) (see the more complete explanation in English law).
[edit] Company registration
To incorporate a company in Great Britain for the purposes of the legal registration, England and Wales are treated as a single entity (companies may be "Registered in England and Wales") with a unified register, separate from those of Scotland or Northern Ireland. Companies must advise Companies House of their intended Registered Office (the official address of the company), which may be in England and Wales, in Scotland, or in Wales.[2] Consequently, on incorporation, companies will be either 'Registered in England and Wales', 'Registered in Scotland', or 'Registered in Wales'. Effectively, companies in England must register in England and Wales, companies in Scotland must register in Scotland, while companies in Wales may choose to register in either England and Wales, or in Wales.
[edit] Other bodies
Outside of the legal system the position is mixed. Some organisations combine as "England and Wales", others separate.
In sports, cricket has a combined international team administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board, while football, rugby union and other sports have separate national representative teams for either country.
Some religious denominations organise on the basis of England and Wales, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, but also small denominations, eg. the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Prior to the splitting-off of the Church in Wales in 1920 the Church of England operated throughout England and Wales.
The Electoral Commission maintains a register of political parties, organised according to where the party operates. As of August 2008 the Commission listed 9 parties registered as operating in England & Wales (as opposed to 170 operating in England only, and 10 operating in Wales only), the largest of which is the Green Party of England and Wales.
Some professional bodies represent England and Wales, for example the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, the General Council of the Bar, the Law Society, the National Farmers Union and the Police Federation of England and Wales.
Other examples include the Charity Commission, the Environment Agency, the General Register Office, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, HM Land Registry, Her Majesty's Prison Service, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, St John Ambulance, the Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants Livery Company, and the Youth Hostels Association.
England and Wales has its own order of precedence (see order of precedence in England and Wales), distinct from those of Northern Ireland or Scotland, or other Commonwealth realms.
The national parks of England and Wales have a distinctive legislative framework and history.
[edit] Geography
England and Wales have a combined population of 53,390,300, or 89% of the total population of the United Kingdom.[3]
Cardiff was proclaimed as the Welsh capital in 1955[4]; London (to be precise Westminster) has been the capital of England since the Norman conquest of England, and the UK following its creation.
[edit] References
- ^ Principality of Wales from A Dictionary of British History, Oxford University Press
- ^ "Company Formation GBF1". Companies House website. Companies House. 2003. http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gbf1.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-10-10.
- ^ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=6 Official mid-2005 population estimate; England=50,431,700 Wales=2,958,600 UK=60,209,500
- ^ Cardiff as Capital of Wales: Formal Recognition by Government. The Times. 21 December 1955.
