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Common Law Family

Systems built on judicial precedent, where a court's past decision binds later cases (stare decisis) and legislation supplements rather than replaces case law. Belongs here: Common Law as the general field, English Law as its origin, and the Law of the United States as its largest modern jurisdiction. Does not belong here: a common-law-descended system that has absorbed enough civil, religious or customary material to be studied as its own hybrid, such as Indian Legal System or Israeli Law, grouped under mixed legal systems instead.

Facts
Comparison
Primary Source of Law
Judicial Precedent 1
Landmark Formation Year
1066 1
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Sources
1. Common law (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Common law, lead section, primary source sentence
    Common law is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes.
  • Common law, body section on origins
    originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066.
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