How to Use common law in a Sentence

common law

noun
Definition of common lawnext
Synonyms for common lawnext
  • This comes from the common law and from a type of model law called the Uniform Trust Code.
    — Dallas News, 20 Sep. 2020
  • No one has done more to help us to keep our faith in the living force and beauty of the common law.
    — Travis Andersen, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • These are common law claims that state courts are used to hearing.
    — Aurora Almendral, Quartz, 26 Apr. 2023
  • The Restatements are, in essence, guidebooks to the common law.
    — Ian MacDougall, ProPublica, 20 May 2019
  • The case centered on two common laws that can be used to sue the lovers of unfaithful spouses.
    — Bruce Henderson, charlotteobserver, 6 Sep. 2017
  • Donovan Davis, 25, has been charged with three counts of common law robbery.
    — Jane Wester, charlotteobserver, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Texas is one of eight states that allow common law marriages.
    — Patrick Danner, ExpressNews.com, 3 Sep. 2020
  • Indeed, they are found almost nowhere else in either statutes or the common law.
    — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 21 June 2021
  • This is three times as many as any other common law nation.
    — WSJ, 1 Oct. 2017
  • The wisdom of the common law, which made it a crime to go armed to the terror of the people, inures to our benefit today.
    — Olivia Li, Slate Magazine, 17 Oct. 2017
  • The more than 30 others must remain in jail, the judge said, a departure from the right to bail under Hong Kong’s common law courts.
    — Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2021
  • Each of the thousands of common law rules that exist today once did not exist.
    — Daniella Silva, NBC News, 28 Dec. 2017
  • In the other, common law states, a spouse usually has a right to claim one third to one half of the estate, regardless of what a will says.
    — Nerd Wallet, oregonlive, 8 Nov. 2021
  • But no sort of amnesty was offered to common law prisoners.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 3 June 2022
  • The grand jury process, meanwhile, was adopted from British common law.
    — Maya Wiley, The New Republic, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Sedition in the early years of the United States English common law made sedition a crime, in writing or speech.
    — Dallas News, 13 Jan. 2022
  • Khater and Tanios are named as defendants for one claim of common law assault, the filing states.
    — Clarence Williams, Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2023
  • Americans found the answer to this problem in common law.
    — Barry C. Lynn, Harper's Magazine, 18 Aug. 2020
  • On April 13, 16-year-old Jordan Fry and two younger teenagers who weren't identified were charged with common law robbery.
    — Jane Wester, charlotteobserver, 23 Apr. 2018
  • Surely there is such case law in the form of the common law of joint and several liability.
    — Michael I. Krauss, Forbes, 18 May 2022
  • Every state has some form of citizen’s arrest law, either on the books or common law.
    — Roy S. Johnson | Rjohnson@al.com, al, 18 May 2020
  • So Alfie’s parents had their rights removed in a nation that once gave the world the Magna Carta, and the miracle of English common law.
    — John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • There, [Kennedy] described 1000 years of evolution of rule of law and of the Anglo-American common law system.
    — The Washington Post, AL.com, 13 Feb. 2018
  • When Hong Kong was handed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the city's common law system remained largely intact.
    — James Griffiths, CNN, 22 June 2020
  • The Irish government, meanwhile, is pitching Dublin to firms who prefer common law to French civil law.
    — Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2019
  • To attract business and workers, the city has a tax-free zone that uses common law for corporate dealings.
    — Frank Holmes, Forbes, 19 Oct. 2021
  • Since the handover, Hong Kong has maintained the common law system inherited from British rule.
    — Kathleen Magramo, CNN, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Ronnie Stevens and his common law wife Tina Ephrem face a six-count federal fraud indictment.
    — oregonlive.com, 10 July 2019
  • Four of the men — ages 30 to 51 — were charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, cruelty to child and assault at common law.
    — Tyler Kingkade, NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024
  • The Arizona Court of Appeals followed English common law and required a homebuilder to repair defective stucco on a home 12 years after construction.
    — Christopher A. Combs, The Arizona Republic, 9 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'common law.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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