Plaid Cymru has called for the establishment of a unique Welsh legal system in order to reflect the growing body of Welsh legislation that has developed since 1999. In many ways this would replicate the existing legal distinctions apparent in the current Scottish constitutional position.
Earlier this month Plaid Cymru’s Elfyn Llwyd MP and Nerys Evans AM launched `Developing a Welsh Jurisdiction’, a policy discussion paper on the future of the system in Wales and suggestions for how it would operate within a devolved framework.
The paper, put together with Cardiff-based lawyer Fflur Jones, sets out options for such a system. Plaid believes that as Wales is growing in confidence as a nation, the time will come for Wales to take full responsibility for the administration of justice.
Plaid’s Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd MP, also a practising barrister, said:
“The time surely has come for the creation of an All Wales administration of justice. Recently, the Prime Minister himself has said in the House of Commons that the future of devolved policing, especially given the developments in Northern Ireland (sic), is a vital issue.”
“We know that there is considerable support for the devolution of policing and recently all the four chief constables were on the records as supporting this.”
“There is support for an All-Wales jurisdiction from the highest levels and also the magistracy.”
“Given that the Court of Appeal regularly sits in Wales, and that we do have our own Administrative Court, surely the time is now right for a distinctly welsh system of administration of justice? Especially as Welsh laws have now been created for the last ten years and there is now a distinct all-Wales legal circuit as well.”
Link to the full copy of the discussion paper on the Plaid Cymru web site below:
https://www.plaidcymru.org/content.php?nID=44;catID=6;pubID=260;lID=1