As William Blackstone wrote in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1756), that common law was:
"... to be found in the records of our several courts of justice in books of reports and judicial decisions, and in treastises of learned sages of the profession, prescribed and handed down to us from the times of ancient antiquity. They are the laws which gave rise and origin to that collection of maxims and customs which is now known by the name of common law."
Because it is not written by elected politicians but, rather, by judges, it is also referred to as "unwritten" law.
Judges sought those principles out when trying a case and applied the precedents to the facts to come up with a judgment.
Baker wrote:
"There was probably never a time when the common law was not in some sense 'case law'....
"(T)the student cites the Roman maxim that one should follow reasons rather than precedents but the master qualifies this by saying that where the reasons for things are obscure, it is enough to follow precedent.
"By the time of Bracton, the influence of judicial practice is clear on the face of the text. The author of the preface stated that he had written the book in order to prevent the newer generation of judges from unwittingly leaving the right course settled by their wise predecessors."
Common law is often contrasted with civil law systems which require all laws to be written in a code or written collection. Common law has been referred to as the "common sense of the community, crystallized and formulated by our ancestors".
The roots of common law can be found in customs for resolving disputes which had evolved in England since the Roman occupation of the Island some 2,000 years ago.
But the Germanic invaders of Britain, as the Romans left, tore up most of the roots Roman law had planted. Gibbon wrote:
"The ferocious Saxons rampled on the laws of Rome. The proceedings of civil and criminal jurisdiction, the titles of honour, the forms of office, the ranks of society, and even the domestic right of marriage, testament and inheritance were finally suppressed, and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and plebian slaves was giverned by the traditionary customs, which had been coarsely framed for the shephards and pirates of Germany."
In order to sustain economic order and predicability, the Crown gave its name to (King's Bench) and supported a roving Court which began to amass and consolidate - pick and choose - the customs until a fairly coherent body of law existed, the first version of the common law.
This continued to develop and gained universal acceptance even through, although with some changes to acccommodate the conquering Normans in 1099.
Equity law developed after the common law to offset the rigid interpretations medieval English judges were giving the common law.
Then, statute law started its gradual replacement of most common law but not before England had begun to colonize the world. Many jurisdictions began their legal system with whatever the state of the law was at the time their colony was established, thereby perpetuating their union with the British common law system.
For hundreds of years, there were separate courts in England and its dependents: one for common law and one for equity (aka Chancery) and the decisions of the latter, where they conflicted, prevailed.
It is a matter of legal debate whether or not common law and equity are now "fused." It is certainly common to speak of the "common law" to refer to the entire body of English law, including common law and equity.
As to the flexibility of the common law, Justice McCardie said in Prager (England):
"The object of the common law is to solve difficulties and adjust relations in social and commercial life. It must meet, in so far as it can, sets of fact abnormal as well as usual. It must grow with the development of the nation. It must face and deal with changing or novel circumstances. Unless it can do that, it fails in its function and declines in its dignity. An expanding society demands an expanding common law."
REFERENCES:
- Baker, J. H., An Introduction to English Legal History (London: Butterworths LexisNexis, 2002), pages 196-197.
- Gibbon, Edward, The History of the Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire.
- Prager v Blatspiel and others 1924 King's Bench Division 599.