common law
19
3.8
- noun
- /ˈkɑːmən lɔː/
- Specialized
:
derecho anglosajón
- The class action lawsuit in the United States is derived from the English common law.
- common law principles
- common law jurisdictions
- common law liability
I am a lawyer in the Canadian common law system and I'm primarily A researcher.
- I am a lawyer in the Canadian common law system and I'm primarily A researcher.
- And usually based on commercial law on, on common law.
- The the English law, common law is similarly widely distributed in the world.
- And so they said we are going to bring in, you know, so they hired retired British common law judges to educate the law and train the people under there.
- It's supposed to be applying the common law, the law that is already shared in common across disputes.
Examples
-
Then we have the development of common law through the federal courts.
-
And the plaintiff had a very strong common law precedent.
-
But we're in a we're in a common law country.
-
And then how do you, you know, how would you bring them to court in some kind of common law situation?
-
If not legally, then by common law.
-
When that occurs, liability will again be governed by common law and statutory principles.
Academic text (1999) -
So there's this English common law principle with regards to the distribution of power.
-
There are currently three main remedies available to oppressed shareholders in common law countries.
Academic text (2017) -
We will cover the common law principle of finds, which expresses the ancient and honourable principle of finders keepers.
-
The development of common law allows judges to interpret laws based on past decisions and societal customs.
Synonyms
18
5.6
Judges make rules from earlier court decisions
Antonyms
How Codified
Surface Forms
Morphology
common + law
Although 'common' + 'law' superficially suggests 'law that is shared or ordinary', the established legal sense — a system based on judicial decisions and precedent rather than codified statutes — is a specialized, technical meaning. A B1 learner who knows the constituents might guess a general or shared kind of law but would probably not derive the precise legal-system meaning without prior exposure, so the expression is partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Common law comes from old England, where judges used rules that were the same, or common, for everyone instead of written laws. So, common law means rules 'made by judges and old customs' rather than written laws.