0 the legal system in England and most of the US that has developed over a period of time from old customs and court decisions, rather than laws made by politicians --
1 someone who is not officially a wife or husband but is considered to be one because she or he has been living with their partner for a long time --
2 a legal system that has developed over a period of time from customs and court decisions --
3 a system of laws based on customs and court decisions rather than on written laws made by a parliament. Common law forms the basis of the legal system in the UK, US, and various other countries: --
If precedents do not exist to create common-law rules, what role do they serve?
It could have been more akin to common-law marriage resulting from co-habitation and the subsequent birth of a child.
Subjects of common-law systems have a duty to serve on juries if asked.
This marked the beginning of the move to the use of common-law rules of recovery to shape public behavior.
The point of the common-law doctrine is to avoid inconsistency while limiting the legal effect of earlier decisions.
The assimilation of precedent to statute facilitates a unified account of law in common-law systems: the basic building blocks of legal doctrine are legal rules.
Of course, this is a large part of what judges do in common-law cases.
Excluded as a ' child ' is a 16 year-old living in a common-law relationship with her stepfather, the suspect.