Common Law Tradition and Sources of Law

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Common law of tradition goes back many many years. It goes back as far as England 1066. “Common law of tradition is the body of law developed from custom or judicial decisions in English and US courts, not attributable to a legislature”, (Miller/Jentz, pp 7). Having the all the nations that use to be in Brittan control had the common law tradition. The common law rules came from when a judge would make a decision in a true legal fashion then it would be applied to the common law rules for everyone to follow. They tried to keep the cases the same and familiar so people wouldn’t get confused. When common law began there was nowhere were people could look up cases and find out information that was needed. “Around the late thirteenth and early fourtee0nth centuries” ((Miller/Jentz, pp 7) the courts started to keep track and to keep information together in YEAR BOOKS. As time went on and it became certain that this was going to be around for awhile it was called Stare Decisis. “Stare Decisis is a common law doctrine under which judges are obligated to follow the precedents established in prior decisions”, (Miller/Jentz, pp 7). There are many sources of American Law. The first source is the Primary source of law, “which is a document that establishes the law on a particular issue, such as a constitution, a statute, an administrative rule, or a court decision” (Miller/Jentz, pp 4-5). A couple of examples of this is the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of different states, laws passed by the government and court decisions. You also have the Secondary sources of law which is “a publication that summarizes or interprets the law, such as a legal encyclopedia, a legal treatise, or an article in a law review” (Miller/Jentz, pp 5). There are also Constitutional Law which is the “body of the law derived from the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of the
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