Common Law information and comparisons
| Legal System: | Legal system characterized by case law, which is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals. |
| Role of judges: | Makes rulings; sets precedent; referee between lawyers.Judges decide matters of law and, where a jury is absent, they also find facts. Most judges rarely inquire extensively into matters before them, instead relying on arguments presented by the part |
| Countries: | United States, England, Australia, Canada, India |
| Constitution: | Not always |
| Precedent: | Used to rule on future or present cases |
| Role of jury: | Juries are comprised only of laypersons — never judges. In the U.S., juries are employed in both civil and criminal cases. Their function is to weigh evidence presented to them, and to find the facts and apply the law. |
| History: | Common law systems have evolved primarily in England and its former colonies, including all but one US jurisdiction and all but one Canadian jurisdiction. For the most part, the English-speaking world operates under common law. |
| Sources of Law: | 1. Constitution (not in the UK) 2. Legislation – Statutes and subsidiary legislation 3. Judicial precedent – common law and equity 4. Custom 5. Convention 6. International Law |
| Type of argument and role of lawyers: | Adversarial. Lawyers ask questions of witnesses, demand production of evidence, and present cases based on the evidence they have gathered. |
| Evidence Taking: | Widely understood to be a necessary part of the litigants’ effective pursuit or defense of a claim. Litigants are given wide latitude in US jurisdictions, but more limited outside the US. In any event, the litigants and their lawyers undertake to a |
| Evolution: | Both systems have similar sources of law- both have statutes and both have case law, they approach regulation and resolve issues in different ways, from different perspectives |
| Creation of new laws: | The law evolves with new decisions made by judges in courts. |
| Operational Level: | Procedural |
| Also known as: | Case law |
| Nature: | Instructive |
| Origin: | Precedent or judiciary |