COMMON LAW

American legal system

SOURCES OF LEGAL
AUTHORITY
Vocabulary bank Video

1. Illiterate  Questionnaire

2. Judges
3. Statues
4. Amassed
5. Embodiment
6. Equity vs common law
 COMMON LAW: Judge-made law, the ruling in a judicial
WHAT IS COMMON LAW? opinion.

The final category of sources of legal authority is common law, an ancient source of legal authority.
Stretching back to our legal roots in England, common law was literally the law of the common people.
In an age when most people were illiterate, judges were among the few professionals who could read and
write. As a result, there were very few statutes created by the government. Instead of statutory law, judges
were forced to create their own rules.
A judge might decide, for instance, that if a man was attacked and it took longer than a year for him to die
of his injuries, the person who attacked him could not be tried for murder. The so-called “Year and a Day” rule
was a common law rule that governed English (and American) jurisdictions for years.
The theory behind the law was simple: Given the standards of the medical profession in the Middle Ages,
if a victim lingered for at least 12 months, it was quite likely that he died from something other than the injuries
he sustained in his attack. As judges continued to reach decisions in cases, they amassed a huge body of legal
principles and standards that came to be called “common law.”
1.- COMMON LAW IS ANOTHER
FORM OF LEGAL AUTHORITY.

2.- COMMON LAW STRETCHES BACK

FOR CENTURIES AND WAS
ORIGINALLY AN EMBODIMENT OF
JUDICIAL PRINCIPLES THAT WOULD
BE APPLIED IN ROUTINE CASES.