1- What is common law and how is it created?
Common law is a type of law established by a collection
of judges after reviewing the assessments of courts and other similar judicial
bodies that have decided on individual cases. Common law is different from
statutes which are adopted via a legislative process or principles issued by an
executive branch
Before common law can be established, there are several
phases of research and examination required of “what the law is” is a similar
scenario. Initially the facts must be established. The next step is to find any
relevant cases and statutes. This is followed by extracting the analogies,
similarities, principles and statements by the many courts on what they
considered was important to conclude how the next court is likely to rule on
the facts of the present case. Decisions made later and in higher courts
generally carry more weight than lower courts and earlier cases. Finally, one
has to combine and integrate the information and understand “what the law is.”
When all done, the law can be applied to the facts of the present case.
2- What are statutes?
A formal written representation or publication of a
judicial body that governs a country, city or state is known as a statute. In general,
a statute either prohibits or commands something or states a policy. Statutes
are laws made by the judicial body and often referred to as the “black letter
law.” As a basis of law, statutes are a well thought out primary authority. In most
cases, statutes are in agreement with the fundamental law of the land.
