What are the oldest laws in the UK?

Answer 1

There are still clauses from Magna Carta (1215) on the statute books of England but there are local laws that are of a similar age, some that have yet to be repealed due to their unlikely nature, for instance, it is still strictly legal to kill a Welshman discovered within the walls of Chester after dark but only if you shoot him with a bow and arrow. There is a similar law regarding the Scots in York. Where you would stand if you actually tried this I don't know.

The issue of laws in England and the UK is that few were actually written down. They were regarded as custom and accepted. In Medieval France there was an established practice that "twice makes a custom" and a custom was law which gives an indication of how laws came into being and were established. The UK does not have a written constitution so it is more flexible than a country that does, the US for instance.