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, England and Wales follow 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.

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.

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