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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

He also said he understood he had "common law employment rights", adding "this will be better understood by lawyers than by me".

From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026

The Rosses say that breach of guest workers’ contracts—which DOL is seeking to enforce with penalties—is a common law claim that belongs in federal court.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

It can be traced to English common law, which imposed a duty on parents to prevent foreseeable damage or harm done by their children.

From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2026

Under common law, liability for “aiding and abetting” is reserved for parties that consciously induce or assist wrongdoing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025

The English had the common law, which relied on the jury system.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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

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

As the Supreme Court has held repeatedly since federal pollution-control statutes displaced federal common-law claims, such disputes may proceed unless they are expressly pre-empted by or otherwise in conflict with federal law.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2025

Paxton’s office, in an explanation of the common-law privacy exception on its website, mentions that “personal financial information” that doesn’t deal with government transactions “is generally highly intimate or embarrassing and must be withheld.”

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2025

To counterbalance the effect of these new political allies, the authorities also put a handful of common-law prisoners in our section.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela