Jan 15, 2025 · Common law, the body of customary law, based on judicial decisions and embodied in reports of decided cases, that has been administered by the courts of England since the Middle Ages. From it has evolved the legal systems found in the United States and most of the Commonwealth countries as well.

common law, Body of law based on custom and general principles and that, embodied in case law, serves as precedent or is applied to situations not covered by statute. Under the common-law system, when a court decides and reports its decision concerning a particular case, the case becomes part of the body of law and can be used in later cases ...

Jan 15, 2025 · Common law - English, American, Commonwealth: The legal systems rooted in the English common law have diverged from their parent system so greatly over time that, in many areas, the legal approaches of common-law countries differ as much from one another as they do from civil-law countries.

Jan 24, 2025 · Common-law marriage, marriage undertaken without either a civil or religious ceremony. In a common-law marriage, the parties simply agree to consider themselves married. The common-law marriage is a rarity today, mainly because of the legal problems of property and inheritance that attend it in

Jan 15, 2025 · Common law - Public Law, Jurisdiction, Precedent: In the early part of the 20th century, it could be asserted that there was no public law in England in the sense of a set of rules regulating the administration of public affairs, which differed from …

COMMON LAW meaning: the laws that developed from English court decisions and customs and that form the basis of laws in the U.S.

precedent, in law, a judgment or decision of a court that is cited in a subsequent dispute as an example or analogy to justify deciding a similar case or point of law in the same manner. Common law and equity, as found in English and American legal systems, rely strongly on the body of established precedents, although in the original ...

Dec 27, 2024 · Stare decisis, (Latin: “let the decision stand”), in Anglo-American law, principle that a question once considered by a court and answered must elicit the same response each time the same issue is brought before the courts. The principle is observed more strictly in …

Jan 7, 2025 · writ, in common law, order issued by a court in the name of a sovereign authority requiring the performance of a specific act. The most common modern writs are those, such as the summons, used to initiate an action.

Jan 3, 2025 · Tort, in common law, civil law, and the vast majority of legal systems that derive from them, any instance of harmful behavior, such as physical attack on one’s person or interference with one’s possessions or with the use and enjoyment of one’s land, economic interests, honor, reputation, and privacy.