History of Common Law

The Victorian Court System was made up of many different parts, including the three different courts, the different juries, and the lawyers. There were three different courts: the Petty Court, the Assize Court and the King’s/Queen’s Bench. Each of the three courts functioned to serve a different purpose, and worked together to hold all of the trials. There were also different court sessions, which included Petty Sessions, Quarter Sessions, Borough Sessions, and City Councils, all of which served different purposes. In addition to the courts and court sessions, there were also the two different juries and the different lawyers. All of these components of the court were very important to the trials, and made the court what we know it as today.

In today’s world, there are only two major legal traditions. Most countries implement either common law or civil law. Common law originates in England during the Middle Ages and adopted by British colonies across the world. Generally, common law is not codified but rather relies on precedent. Therefore most judicial decisions have already been made in similar cases and eliminates the need for comprehensive and continuously updated legal codes. Civil law is a concept that originally emerges from Europe, fundamentally based upon Roman law. The idea of unifying all law into one system is quite an old one. There have been significant development in the Western world. Specifically, the Code of Justinian sets forth the groundwork for the single largest legal reform of the modern age, the Napoleonic Code. The process of codifying a body of laws is to summarize and systemize them, so that the laws become more clear. Normally, civil law tends to stray away from definitive laws and relies on general principles that may be interpreted by the judge. It heavily depends on the judges to interpret each case and apply the necessary laws accordingly. A principal component of civil law is the codification. The earliest example of codification can be traced back to ancient Babylon with the creation of the Code of Hammurabi.

Historically, common law emphasized the importance of judicial decisions rather than utilizing the structure of codes, legal rules, and statutes as courts do today. In the past, judges documented and issued their decisions which were later circulated from one court to another and became known as common law. In cases where parties disagreed, common law court would look at previous decisions made in related cases and incorporate those decisions into the current case (Siegel, et al., 2011). If similar disputes had been resolved in the previous case, the court would utilize the same perspective to resolve their current case. This became known as precedent and like common law, continues to be utilized in today’s court system (Siegel, et al., 2011).

In the UK, we do not have a legal system which is codified. Our laws are set out in a few sources, which consists of common law, legislation and EU laws and conventions. This means that there is not a document which sets out the laws which we must abide by. Alternatively, cases in legal history set a precedent for future cases indication the sentence or decision to give. In order for a bill to become a law it goes through a procedure called consideration. The bill is passed

Modern day common law is adjudicated similarly with it being judged according to available statutes or acts enacted by legislative bodies and decisions made in previous cases after all evidence and facts are attained. The decisions of a court/judge are binding only in a particular jurisdiction (area of control or influence), and even within jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others. Due to this before a decision is made it must be accepted by higher courts (Statute and Common Law, 2014).

To begin, common law originated in Medieval England in the time of King Henry II. The practice developed sending circuit judges from the King’s central court to travel throughout England to hear the various disputes. The aim of these courts (assizes) was to add consistency and fairness to the legal system. Alongside the traveling courts King Henry also established the jury system. Over time these judges recorded the information of each case they heard as well as the decisions and punishments that were ordered. This is known as case law or common law. This began a justice system that relied on the principle of stare decisis or “to stand by the decision”. This principle developed into the rule of precedent which was used to apply the previous decision to a case with similar circumstance. This system was used throughout the country and thus was known as common law. As the English began colonizing Canada they brought their legal systems with them, which greatly influenced today’s legal system.

Common law is law originating from use and custom rather than from written statutes. The term refers to non-statutory customs, traditions, and precedents that help guide judicial decision making (Schmalleger). The judge

Even though much of our legal philosophy inherited from Britain and French customs, new laws form, old laws change, and the common law and

The last primary source of law is Case Law. Case law is laws created from former cases or existing laws (Sources of Law, 2017). Case law is rules created from court decisions. Case law, also be known as precedent or common law, is the body of prior judicial decisions that guide judges deciding issues before them. Depending on the relationship between the deciding court and the precedent, case law may be binding or merely persuasive (U.S. Case Law n.d.). An example of this law would be a civil suit. Case law is rules based on court decisions.

2. Substantive law deals with the rights of the people and procedural law deals with how the law can be enforced

Human civilization marked the beginning of modern day legal systems. The advancements in societies resulted in maintaining certain rules and regulations to continue this progress. Every society has its own set of laws which are in some ways distinct from others. Many of these laws have common sections and underlying guidelines. This could be because some societies decide to retain certain aspects of their customs after breaking out of another society. It could also be the case that over time different societies through trade and other intercultural activities developed together, which caused them to have agreements in their laws. For many others, it is the case that they share a common colonial master. The law and legal systems operating today are derivatives of the forms listed above.

Laws are critical to every society in every country and in Britain we have three main varieties of law at work; statute laws, European laws and common laws.

The English law were based on the common law or the case laws which were developed by judges during the course of various court decisions. Common law derived when judges in court applied legal precedent to the various cases before them to come out with judgements.

Common law - that part of the English law not embodied in legislation. It consists of rules of law based on common custom and usage and on judicial court decisions. English common law became the basis of law in the USA and many other English-speaking countries.

law is law that has been built up over the years by decisions of the