Wales is constituent country of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK for short), along with Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. The head of state of the UK is the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Executive power is derived by the Queen, and exercised by UK government through the UK Parliament at Westminster, London.

The National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff is the political legislature for Wales, with some powers devolved to it by the UK Parliament. The executive arm of the National Assembly for Wales is the Welsh Assembly Government headed by the First Minister for Wales, the Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM.

The United Kingdom Parliament currently retains responsibility for passing primary legislation in Wales. The National Assembly has regulatory authority over laws passed that are applicable to Wales, and has the power to vary these by secondary legislation. The National Assembly is not a sovereign authority, and the UK Parliament could, in theory, overrule or even abolish it at any time. However, the National Assembly’s powers are set to increase as the Government of Wales Act 2006 will allow it to speed up the passage of 'Assembly Measures', the new form of primary legislation that the Assembly will create.

The National Assembly was first established in 1998 under the Government of Wales Act. There are 60 members of the Assembly, known as "Assembly Members" (AM) or "Aelodau'r Cynulliad" (AC) in Welsh. Forty of the AMs are elected under the First Past the Post electoral system, where the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins. The other twenty are elected via the Additional Member System from regional lists in 5 different regions, where seats are shared between the different political parties by their share of the votes.

The National Assembly elects the First Minister (usually the leader of the party with the most AMs), who acts as the head of government. The Welsh Assembly Government is the executive arm, and the National Assembly has delegated most of its powers to the Assembly Government. The National Assembly meets in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, in a purposely-designed building, designed by the architect Richard Rogers, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth on St. David's Day (March 1st) 2006.

The current administration in Wales was formed by the Welsh Labour party. The largest opposition party is Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales in Welsh). The other parties represented in the National Assembly are the Welsh Conservative Party, the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Forward Wales. Amongst other issues, current political debate in Wales is about whether the National Assembly should be given more powers, such as the power to pass primary legislation, as the Scottish Parliament can in Scotland.

Law of Wales
Wales shares the same legal system as England, within the distinct legal entity of England and Wales. Wales was legally joined to England under the Laws in Wales Act 1535, in the reign of King Henry VIII. Prior to that, the ancient Welsh Laws, codified under the reign of Hywel Dda, had survived de facto after the 1282 conquest up to the fifteenth century in many areas.

Wales had a different court system to England between 1543, when a second Laws of Wales Act came into being, and 1830 when the system was changed in-line with changes to the legal system in England. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 provided that all laws that applied to England would automatically apply to Wales unless the law explicitly stated otherwise. This act, with regard to Wales, was repealed in 1967.

As such, the law of England is the law of Wales, without the difference evident inlaw, evident between Scotland, and England and Wales. English law is regarded as a common law system, with no major codification of the law, and legal precedents are binding as opposed to persuasive. The court system is headed by the House of Lords, the highest court of appeal in the land for criminal and civil cases. The Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales is the highest court of first instance as well as an appellate court. The three divisions are the Court of Appeal; the High Court of Justice and the Crown Court. Magistrates' Courts or County Courts hear lesser cases, depending on their nature.

However with the large degree of autonomy caused by the creation of the Welsh Assembly, there is a degree of independence in terms of law-making. The Government of Wales Act 2006 has transferred some primary legislation powers to the National Assembly for Wales for the first time, although such legislation must have authority the United Kingdom Parliament in Westminster to be passed. This means that it is likely in the future, within certain defined fields of law, that the law of Wales will show increasing differences to the law of England.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org