Common Law

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The common law is a body of law and judicial precedents that is developed through legal tradition and court cases.

• aka, case law or judge-made law
• U.S. common law is a body of law and legal principles inherited from England
  • develops as judges decide court cases
  • called lex non scripta
    • law that is not written down
• courts decide cases by referring to established legal principles and the customs and values of society
• look at decisions made in earlier cases to see if the cases are similar
• formal principles of logic and reason are used to help reach a decision when the result is unclear
• includes many long-standing legal principles that have never been codified in legislation
  • but nonetheless guide judicial decisions
• delicate relationship between common law and code law
  • code law may override common law when laws leave room for interpretation
  • common law principles guide courts in making case law that gills those gaps
• Common law principles are often included within the code law of the federal or state government
  • E.g., privacy torts
• very influential in civil areas such as torts, contract law, and property law