Unlike
statute law (law enacted by acts of legislature,)
the common law is simple and uncomplicated.
However, the common law's simplicity and
uncomplicated form does not render it
weak or anemic. In fact, the exact opposite
is true. The common law is so powerful
because it is simple to understand and
apply, and because the common law under
our system of law is held to be superior
to all other forms of man's law. The Constitution
itself is a common document and the U.S.
Supreme Court, the highest court in the
land, is a common law court.
The common law came into existence long
before written law or a formalized court
system existed. No earthly ruler handed
the law down to people, or imposed laws
upon them from on high. The people decided
for themselves what was to be the law.
Ages ago people who found themselves
in a lawful dispute over a matter would
often agree to allow an unbiased person
to settle the dispute. Ordinarily this
person would be a mutually respected village
elder, community leader, or spiritual
leader. The arbitrator of the dispute
would generally base their decision upon
the religious and moral teachings of the
age and their own common sense.
As a rule, the decisions of these judicial
arbitrators were very much uniform where
the same basic set of circumstances existed.
This was due of course to the judicial
arbitrators having applied the same set
of religious and moral teachings to their
decision making process. After countless
times of a particular matter of dispute
having been decided in the same way by
countless judicial arbitrators, people
came to commonly accept those decisions
as being law. People would often say in
regard to commonly accepted judicial decisions
— "that's the law!"
The
common law is truly the law of the people
due to the simple fact that the people
themselves agreed in common upon what
the law was to be. |
