Common Law
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
That system of law or form of the science of jurisprudence which has prevailed in England and in the United States of America, in contradistinction to other great systems, suph as the Roman or civil law. As distinguished from statute law, those principles, usages, and rules of action applicable to the government and security of persons and of property, which do not rest for their authority upon any express and positive declaration of the will of the legislature.
1 Kent, Comm. 492.
The body of rules and remedies administered by courts of law, technically so called, in contradistinction to those of equity, and to the canon law.
3 Pet. (U. S.) 446.
The law of any country, to denote that which is common to the whole country, in contradistinction to laws and customs of local application. As used in the United States, it includes both the unwritten law of England and the statutes passed before the settlement of the United States.
5 Pet. fU. S.) 124; 18 Wis. 147.
The common law is not fixed in its scope, but develops new principles by analogy as new conditions arise.
42 Ala. 597.