common law

Related to common law: civil law, Common law marriage

common law

Law that is not written or defined in legislative statutes but rather is based on the precedential decisions of judges in courts or other tribunals. It is common law that those who enter into a written agreement must adhere to the terms contained therein.
See also: common, law
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • feels over reals
  • break a law
  • break a/the law
  • pocket veto
  • a grey area
  • gray area
  • in fee
  • gold standard
  • bright-line
  • councils of war never fight
References in periodicals archive
In this essay, I summarize Tullock's criticisms of the common law, which focus on the comparatively high error rates he observed in the decisions made by judges and juries as well as on the relatively high costs (economic inefficiencies) of the common law's adversarial procedures.
The Origins of the Common Law and the Civil Law, in Brief
The key common law limitation on this is that endeavours, whether foreign or domestic, cannot be illegal or contrary to public policy, as these characteristics disqualify conduct from being treated as charity.
In Canada, the federal regulatory regime over charities has grappled with this common law legacy in a number of ways.
As Gordon maintains, late nineteenth century American legal scholars overwhelmingly sought to identify the origins of the common law and trace its evolution to the present.
Henry Adams, whom Gordon recognizes as initiating professional legal historiography in the United States, (22) blamed the inferiority of English to German legal scholarship on the English adherence to the common law tradition.
Impeachment is also a legacy of the British common law system begun in the 14th century.
When the Americans took over the Philippines from the Spaniards under the Treaty of Paris of 1898, they introduced the common law system of procedure, but retained the Spanish Civil Code and the 'Codigo Penal.' The latter was replaced in 1932 by the current penal code.
Anderson's paper proves that countries that use the common law system have significantly higher female HIV rates compared to countries that adopted the civil law traditions.
It goes without saying that the history of the concept of the "common law of war" should be of grave interest not only to observers of Bahlul's case, but indeed anyone who cares about the legal regulation of war.
The first possible analysis rested on the idea that the common law is positive law --an exhaustive code of rules laid down by the courts acting as Austinian commanders.
Part II of this Article examines the conception of a constitutional right in common law constitutionalism mainly by using historical sources.
He distinguishes the developments in the common law from humanist views that favour an elitist monopoly on law and perceptions that the Sovereign is the only safeguard against tyranny.
The analysis of whether an employer is considered the common law employer arises most often in the context of determining whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor.
exist in the common law to further its economic goals, or are otherwise