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• common law
  common law

  noun

  the system of law originating in England, as distinct from the civil or Roman law and the canon or ecclesiastical law.
• common-law
  common-law

  adjective

  of, relating to, or established by common law.

common law

¹ American  

[kom-uhn law] / ˈkɒm ən ˈlɔ /

noun

• common laws
  plural

1. the system of law originating in England, as distinct from the civil or Roman law and the canon or ecclesiastical law.

2. the unwritten law, especially of England, based on custom or court decision, as distinct from statute law.

3. the law administered through the system of courts established for the purpose, as distinct from equity or admiralty.

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common-law ² American  

[kom-uhn-law] / ˈkɒm ənˈlɔ /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or established by common law.

   a common-law spouse.

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common law British  

noun

1. the body of law based on judicial decisions and custom, as distinct from statute law

2. the law of a state that is of general application, as distinct from regional customs

3.  common-law.  (modifier) denoting a marriage deemed to exist after a couple have cohabited for several years

   common-law marriage

   common-law wife

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common law Cultural  

1. Law developed in the course of time from the rulings of judges, as opposed to law embodied in statutes passed by legislatures (statutory law) or law embodied in a written constitution (constitutional law). (See stare decisis.)

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The importance of common law is particularly stressed in the legal system of Britain, on which the legal system of the United States is based.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• common laws
  plural

Etymology

Origin of common law¹

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50

Origin of common-law²

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

common law common-law

“The Citizenship Clause incorporated the common law and granted citizenship to nearly all children born in the United States.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Justice Elena Kagan said the administration was seeking to undo a legal tradition of birthright citizenship that dates back to English common law.

From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026

It’s true that our common law and constitutional precedents have long protected parents’ relationship with their children—and in our view, with good reason.

From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2026

The English jurist’s “History of the Pleas of the Crown,” published posthumously in 1736, influenced the development of common law in England, the British colonies and, eventually, the United States.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

Congress had moved gradual emancipation off its political agenda; its decision in the spring of 1790 became a precedent with the force of common law.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

The old common-law “hue and cry” is not a model to romanticize; it could be coercive, punitive, and exclusionary.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Many people wrongly believe co-habiting couples have automatic legal and inheritance rights under "common-law marriage", says Alastair Sinclair, family lawyer at Setfords.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

English law had adopted a form of birthright citizenship—but, as Blackstone noted, not as a common-law matter but because naturalization “cannot be performed but by an act of parliament.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

She then was transferred to Pretrial Detention Centre Number 5 in Donetsk, where she shared a small, filthy cell with around 20 common-law prisoners.

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

Sometimes we would see a group of common-law prisoners working by the side of the road, and their warders would order them into the bushes so they would not see us as we marched past.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela