Common law

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.