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Samuel, Geoffrey --- "Common Law" [2006] ELECD 164; in Smits, M. Jan (ed), "Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law

Editor(s): Smits, M. Jan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420130

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Common Law

Author(s): Samuel, Geoffrey

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

13 Common law*
Geoffrey Samuel


The expression `common law' has a variety of meanings, but in the context
of comparative law it is usually used to denominate the legal family or tra-
dition associated with Anglo-American legal systems. In fact care must still
be taken. First, the expression `common law', if translated into Latin or
French, will come to mean something very different; thus jus commune or
droit commun are labels that will never mean the Anglo-American legal tra-
dition. Secondly, the common law tradition encompasses more than the
legal systems of England and the United States; most of the United
Kingdom Commonwealth countries have legal systems belonging to the
common law family. In addition to these two ambiguities, the expression
`common law' is used in English law to mean different things depending on
the context within which it is employed. Thus it must be stated at the outset
that `common law' for the purposes of this contribution will be taken to
mean the legal tradition encompassing the legal systems of the United
Kingdom (except Scotland), the United States and the Commonwealth
countries. However the main emphasis will be on English law.

1 Introduction
Roman law was not the only law to be found in medieval Europe. Indeed
while `the Glossators mainly busied themselves with the interpretation and
systematic exposition of the Roman texts, they knew well enough that much
of what they taught had no effective influence outside the doors of the
lecture-room' (Jones, 1940, p. ...