common law

Meaning

1. (uncountable) Law developed by judges, courts, and agency adjudicatory tribunals, through their decisions and opinions (also called case law) (as opposed to statutes promulgated by legislatures, and regulations promulgated by the executive branch).
2. (uncountable) Legal system mainly in England and its former colonies with a heavy emphasis on judge-made law, doctrines deduced by casuistry rather than from general principles, and law distributed among judicial decisions rather than codified statutes (as opposed to civil law).
3. (historical, uncountable) Body of law and procedure administered in certain courts (known as law courts) in England and its former colonies characterized by a rigid system of writs, with a limited set of remedies (as opposed to equity or admiralty).
4. (uncountable) Law of general application throughout a country, province, or state as opposed to law having only a special or local application

Synonyms

unwritten law

precedent

case law

unwritten rule

case in point

social rules

consuetude

tradition

Translations

common law

Gewohnheitsrecht

droit commun

direito comum

common law

direito consuetudinário

common Law

jurisprudence

jurisprudência

ungeschriebenes Gesetz

précédent

Common Law

diritto comune

قانون مشترك

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English comun lawe, comune lawe (“general law, common law”), from comun (“shared, universal”) + lawe (“law”), referring to the law's uniform nature throughout a jurisdiction. Compare Medieval Latin lex commūne, iūs commūne and Anglo-Norman commune lei.