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Chapter 2. Introduction
Common law was introduced by king Henry II of England, as a way to achieve more power in his kingdom. Under king's orders judges travelled through the country to list the customs of common law, using the local committee of residents (the jury) for information, the judges developed a right system which applied to the whole
country.
Until the 17th century common law was one of the many right systems used in England, village courts used common law, admiralty courts (everything to do with what happens at sea) used civil law and ecclesiastical courts used canon law. When king Henry II of England was forced to cede his reign to the parliament of England, the parliament of England stated all other right systems subsidiary to the common law. ‘
Chapter 3. History of common law
In the High Medieval Period common law was the most common law practice in Europe, however in the Late Mid Centuries it was in many countries replaced by Roman law, only the countries once part of the Great British Empire (the British colonies) like Australia, Canada, and India still use the original common law practice.
Common law started when English courts decided to use tradition upon making decisions, a decision which was made before became "binding" for any further cases, hence the name common law which following to the Cambridge dictionary means "an opinion belonging to or shared by two or more people" (in this case a decision made by a jury). The part that makes a decision binding also proves that common law is characterised by case law.
Chapter 5. Description
Common law
– The part of English law that is derived from custom and judicial precedent rather than statues. (Oxford dictionary)-
Common law is a right system, developed in the Middle Ages in England. The system is based on the English customary law and characterised by case law. Decisions are made by a committee of local residents named a jury and based on past cases regarding the same subject (case law)
Customary law
The special thing about customary law is that it's an unwritten law practice, passed on from generation to generation only using oral transmission. Customary law can relate to all sorts of different areas of law, from marriage and property to business privileges and criminal law. Not everything is included in customary law. There are a few conditions a custom must comply. For example, the custom has to be shared by at least a large group of society if not the whole of society, it has to be seen as compulsory and the custom has to be ratified by the judicial party. The unwritten part of this law system however brings some difficulties, for example customary law doesn't provide any support for entirely new cases and the properties of customary law are very locally decided and can therefore be seen as a form of legal
inequality. Legal inequality occurs when
Case law
Case law is developed by judges and courts, when a decision is made in a certain situation a principle or rule (also named a Precedent) will be established which has to be followed in other cases contemplating the same subject. This is to make the form of legal inequality established in the part of common law based on customary law less unequal.
In cases during which parties disagree on what the law is, the court is bound to regain to the earlier established rules. If the court finds the case different from past cases judges have the authority to make law, the new decision will become precedent and will bind new cases. In a way case law is slowly becoming a written law practice, but since new cases keep coming up and old precedents slowly get renewed more and more precedents keep coming it doesn't make the practice any clearer, there is no code and precedents by law never become completely invalid which means per case every precedent made in the relevant subject has to be considered, which in its turn means that unless one outcome is chosen the outcome will be a mix of precedents which will make a new precedent.