Common

(kom'mŭn.) [L. communis.] (Law.) A tract of land, or open space, the use of which is not appropriated to any individual but belongs to the public, or to a number. The right which a person has to pasture his cattle on the land of another, to dig turf, catch fish, cut wood, or the like, is called C. of pasture, of turbary, of piscary, and of est overs. Common Law. That law which derives its force and authority from the universal consent and immemorial practice of the people, but which has never received the sanction of the legislature by an expre law, being so distinguished from the statute law. In this country, the C. L. of England has been adopted as the basis of our jurisprudence in all the States except Louisiana. Many of the most valued principles of the C. L. have been embodied in the Constitution of the U. States, and the constitutions of the several States; and in many of the States the C. L. and the statutes of England in force in the colony at the time of American independence are by the State constitutions declared to be the law of the State until repealed. Com'mon place Book, one in which data, notabilia, or extracts from books and reflections are written.-(Com.) A waste-book. Com'mon Pleas. (Law.) The name of a court having jurisdiction on such pleas or actions as are brought by private persons against private persons, or by the government when the cause of action is of a civil nature. In England, whence we derived this phrase, common pleas are so called to distinguish them from pleas of the crown. A court or courts of the same name exist in many States of the U. States. [s. 211]