common law
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common law
Where it comes from
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.
noun common-law
- 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).
- 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).
- 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).
- Law of general application throughout a country, province, or state as opposed to law having only a special or local application
Similar: case law, decisional law, judge-made law, jus commune, precedential law
Thesaurus
noun
Similar: case law, decisional law, judge-made law, jus commune, precedential law
Translations
Every language
noun legal system of England and its former colonies
| 中文 | 普通法 pǔtōngfǎ |
|---|---|
| Português | common law |
| Français | common law |
| Deutsch | common law |
| Tiếng Việt | thông luật |
noun law of general application
| 日本語 | 慣習法 kanshūhō |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 普通法 pǔtōngfǎ |
| Français | droit commun |
| Italiano | diritto comune |
| Română | drept comun |
| Русский | о́бщее пра́во óbščeje právo |
Talk about this word "common law." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/common%20law. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. common law. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/common%20law "common law." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/common%20law.Cite this
@misc{common_law_2026,
title = {common law},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/common%20law},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
