what is common law?

Question

just need to know what common law means in a legal and ethical framework thanks heaps kylie

Answer 1

When a man and woman live together for more than 5 (or 7) years, it is considered common law marriage. Giving them the legal status as if they were married.

Answer 2

Common law depends on decisions in previous cases and affects the law to be applied in future cases. When there is no authoritative statement of the law, common law judges have the authority and duty to "make" law by creating precedent.[1] The body of precedent is called "common law" and it binds future decisions. In future cases, when parties disagree on what the law is, an "ideal" common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision (this principle is known as stare decisis). If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, it will decide as a "matter of first impression." Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent, and will bind future courts under the principle of stare decisis.

In practice, common law systems are considerably more complicated than the "ideal" system described above. The decisions of a court are binding only in a particular jurisdiction, and even within a given jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others. For example, in most jurisdictions, decisions by appellate courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction and on future decisions of the same appellate court, but decisions of non-appellate courts are only non-binding persuasive authority. Interactions between constitutional law, common law, statutory law and regulatory law also give rise to considerable complexity. However stare decisis, the principle that similar cases should be decided according to similar rules, lies at the heart of all common law systems.

Common law legal systems are in widespread use, particularly in those nations which trace their legal heritage to Britain, including the United Kingdom, the United States, most of Canada, and other former colonies of the British Empire.

You didnot ask for COMMON LAW MARRIAGE did you? So this is the only definition I could find for common law while if it is marriage you ask then it is wholly a different story.

Answer 3

Common law is that which is based on court decisions rather than on codified or written laws (i.e. statutory law). For example, the U.S. Supreme Court held in the case of Griswald vs. Connecticut that the constitution's Bill of Rights implicitly contained a citizen's right to privacy even though it is not specifically mentioned anywhere in the document. Accordingly, an American's right to the expectation of privacy from government intrusion is a matter of the common law derived from the Court's decision rather than any specific statute or constitutional provision.

Answer 4

Common law is essentially British legal precedent. It was developed over hundreds of years of practice in Britian, the US and former British Colonies. There are causes of action, defenses and remedies that all developed through these English Courts that still survive today in modern legal practice.

Answer 5

It used to be a certain amount of time a couple lived together to be considered legally married without going through a ceremony. Most States have done away with this law.

Answer 6

common law is judge made law. It is supposed to be based on the customs, mores and practices of the community in which it governs and is supposed to evolve as the community's outlooks about certain things evolve. The practice originated in England (I think) and that's where we got the tradition.