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Common law
noun
Definitions
Noun
- 1 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). uncountable
- 2 (civil law) a law established by following earlier judicial decisions wordnet
- 3 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). uncountable
- 4 a system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws wordnet
- 5 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). historical, uncountable
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- 6 Law of general application throughout a country, province, or state as opposed to law having only a special or local application uncountable
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.
See also for "common law"
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