COMMON LAW

the body of Eng. customary law, as distinct from that embodied in Acts of Parliament. It is derived from the customary laws which prevailed in Saxon times, viz. the Dane Law, Mercian Law, We ex Law. During the Norman period the king’s court selected such of these customs as were generally applicable to the whole country, and rejected the rest. Some of this common law is as ancient as the Early Britons, and Black stone has pointed out that ‘however compounded, and from whatever fountains derived, it has subsisted immemorially in this kingdom.’ Judges have always sought to apply new combinations of circumstances, as they arose, the rules of law which were found in these ancient legal principles and judicial precedents.