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common law
[cf. L. jūs commūne, in Du Cange (where the expression is used also of France and the Empire). Also F. droit commun in sense 1.]
†1.
a. The general law of a community, as opposed to local or personal customs, as of a caste, family, calling, city, or district. Obs.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 72 Two theues also tholed deth þat tyme Vppon a crosse bisydes cryst, so was þe comune lawe. c1430Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 2929 Juge him aftir the comon law And not oonlie aftir youre ovn saw. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. ii. (Arb.) 159 The riche men not only by priuate fraud, but also by commen lawes do euery day pluck..from the poore some parte of their liuing.
†b. common law of the church: the general law of the Church, as opposed to provincial constitutions, papal privileges, etc.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 289 Þerfore seide Seynt Gregory and þe comyn lawe of þe Chirche, þat honour or prelacie schulde not be ȝoven to hem þat seken and coveiten it.
2. The unwritten law of England, administered by the King's courts, which purports to be derived from ancient and universal usage, and is embodied in the older commentaries and the reports of adjudged cases. attrib. common-law marriage, a marriage brought about without an ecclesiastical or civil ceremony but recognized in some jurisdictions as valid by the common law; so common-law wife.
In this sense opposed to statute law; also used for the law administered by the King's ordinary judges as distinguished from the equity administered by the Chancery and other courts of like jurisdiction, and from other systems administered by special courts, as ecclesiastical and admiralty law, and (in the Middle Ages) the law merchant.
In U.S.: the body of English legal doctrine which is the foundation of the law administered in all the States settled from England, and those formed by later settlement or division from them.
c1350Usages Winchester in Eng. Gilds (1870) 361 And þat commune law hym be y-entred, þe axere and þe defendaunt. 1389Ibid. 21 It shal be lefulle to hem to gone to y⊇ comoun lawe. 1539Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 1 §2 In like maner..as coperceners by the common lawes..are compelled to do. 1632B. Jonson Magn. Lady ii. v, No exception Lies at the common-law. 1768Blackstone Comm. iv. xxii. 295 All offences either against the common law or act of parliament. Ibid. IV. 485 That admirable system of maxims and unwritten customs, which is now known by the name of the common law..doubtless of Saxon parentage. 1810Bentham Packing (1821) 154 The great body of the law, remaining..in the shapeless state, of common, alias unwritten, law. 1826–58Kent Comm. I. 548 Our American reports contain an exposition of the common law, as received and modified in reference to the genius of our institutions. 1831A. Stearns Real Actions 250 The greatest departure from the rules of the common law, upon the subject of dower, will perhaps be found in the statutory provisions of Vermont and Georgia.
attrib.1875Maine Hist. Inst. ix. 263 Our oldest common-law authorities. 1848Wharton Law Lex. 224 There are some matters in which the equity and common law courts have a concurrent jurisdiction. 1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., Common-law marriage. 1934J. O'Hara Appt. Samarra (1935) iii. 85 Marie was Lebrix's common law wife. 1953Stroud's Judicial Dict. (ed. 3) IV. 3297 A common law wife is one who is married by a union which though informal was recognised as valid by the common law (Blanchett v. Hansell, [1943] 3 W.W.R. 275). 1958Church Times 12 Sept. 3/2 It is notorious that, throughout the West Indies,..between half and three-quarters of all marriages are so-called ‘common law’ marriages, lacking the sanction of the Church. 1959A. Salkey Quality of Violence iii. 48 The unfortunate common-law wives in the district. |