The law relating to markets illustrates the extent to which the English legal system bears the indelible stamp of its historical origins. Despite a mass of legislation during the last one hundred and fifty years, the common law of markets has retained much of its significance. Although aspects of the common law dating from the Middle Ages are singularly ill-adapted to contemporary social and economic conditions pressure on parliamentary time and the rigid application of the doctrine ofstare decisis combine to preserve this distinctly anachronistic area of the law.