Common Law

Common Law has developed from case decisions and judgements made over many years, it is mostly based upon precedent rulings by judges of the legal system. These are normally based upon rulings that have been recorded since the middle Ages, in the courts of England.

Once a precedent has been set, the presiding judge and attorneys presenting a new argument or legal case will normally draw upon these precedents. These precedents as defined and decided upon by the presiding judge carry the full weight of the law, and it turn binds future decisions in a court of law. This is the essence of common law, and when a court follows a precedent where an issue has been resolved and has been recorded as common or case law the process or procedure is known as stare decisis. If the case tried or heard by the presiding judge is significantly different, the judgement made will be of a different nature, and this in turn will become the precedent that will be used in future cases, becoming binding on the courts of law, in this same process of stare decisis.

In reality it is a lot more complex than the above description, and one has to take into account the nature of the decision, the jurisdiction of the deciding court and judge, as well as the respective level of the court; meaning that appellate courts have authority over localn courts, and over future decisions by the same appellate court in that jurisdiction. The decisions by the lower courts are of a non binding persuasive authority.

The interaction of common law with the various other types of law, including constitutional, statutory and regulatory ensure that the decision making and ruling become a lot more complex and complicated than relying merely upon previous rulings and judgements.

The common law system is used widely in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and a lot of the Common wealth coutnries, or previous colonies of the British Empire.