common law

Table of Contents

Introduction
The origin of the common law
- The feudal land law
- Development of a centralized judiciary
- Bracton and the influence of Roman law
- Early statute law
- Growth of chancery and equity
- Inns of Court and the Year Books
- The rise of the prerogative courts
- The 16th-century revolution
- Further growth of statute law
- Consolidation of equity
The modernization of common law in Great Britain
- Influence of Blackstone
- Reforms since the 19th century
  - Bentham
  - Changes in procedure and criminal law
  - Reorganization of the courts
  - Public law
  - Reform in private law
The development of common law in the United States and other jurisdictions
- American innovations
  - Growth of statute law and codes
  - Equity and probate
  - Federal and state judicial systems
- Personal and property rights
Comparisons of modern English, American, and Commonwealth law
- Personal law
- Property and succession
- Tort law
- Contracts
- Criminal law and procedure
- The future of the common law

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Facts

Also Known As	Anglo-American law

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Topics

equity coverture feme sole judicial lawmaking stare decisis English law American law customary law civil law Roman-Dutch law European law adat Roman law Chinese law Soviet law Greek law Scottish law cuneiform law

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William Blackstone

Sir William Blackstone

English jurist

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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United States jurist

Sir Edward Coke

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Sir Matthew Hale, detail of an oil painting after John Michael Wright; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

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English legal scholar

James Kent, portrait by Daniel Huntington; in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

James Kent

American jurist

Henry de Bracton

British jurist

Ranulf de Glanville

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