Common law
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The common law forms a major part of the law of those countries of the world with a history as British territories or colonies. It includes quite a lot of non-statutory law, that means law that builds on precedent that comes from centuries of judgments by working jurists.
There are three important connotations to the term.
- Common law as opposed to statutory law and regulatory law: Common law bases on decisions issued by courts and not on "statutes" or "regulations" that are created by any rule-making authority or legislature.
- Common law as opposed to civil law: "Common law" jurisdictions (most of which descend from the English legal system) place great weight on such common law decisions. "Civil law" or "code" jurisdictions have as basis states (which often descend from the Napoleonic code).
- Law as opposed to equity: The third differentiates "common law" (or just "law") from "equity". Before 1873, England had two parallel court systems, courts of "law" that could only award money damages and recognised only the legal owner of property, and courts of "equity" that recognised trusts of property and could issue orders to do or stop doing something. Although the separate courts were merged long ago in most jurisdictions, or at least all courts were permitted to apply both law and equity, the distinction between law and equity remains important in some cases.
Many important areas of law are governed primarily by common law. For example, in England and Wales and in most states of the United States, the basic law of contracts and torts does not exist in statute, but only in common law that is modifiable by statute.
[edit] History of the common law
Common law originally developed under the inquisitorial system in England from judicial decisions that were based in tradition, custom, and precedent. Such forms of legal institutions and culture bear resemblance to those which existed historically in continental Europe and other societies where precedent and custom have at times played a substantial role in the legal process, including Germanic law recorded in Roman historical chronicles.