How to Use common law in a Sentence

common law

noun
Definition of 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • The lawsuit makes claims including breach of contract and a denial of a common law right of peaceful interment.
    — Ronn Blitzer, Fox News, 28 July 2022
  • But the common law is just the procedural mechanism by which these views became and remained law.
    — New York Times, 19 May 2022
  • Swalwell and the other lawsuits also cite some D.C. laws and common law on assault, and the judge allowed arguments based on a few of those to proceed, as well.
    — Tal Kopan, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Feb. 2022
  • On the other is Hong Kong’s common law system, shaped by British colonial rule, which prizes due process, transparency, and the independence of courts and judges.
    — Mary Hui, Quartz, 29 Dec. 2020
  • Australia’s legal system is built on British common law.
    — New York Times, 7 Apr. 2020
  • Of all the things shared by the United States and Britain, perhaps the most important is the common law—a system of law that isn’t imposed from above but arises from the people in the form of cases and precedents.
    — Mike Lee and Iain Duncan Smith, WSJ, 28 Mar. 2021
  • Under the common law, Google, as a common carrier, has a duty to provide this service in a straight-up manner.
    — Charles M. Miller, National Review, 8 Oct. 2021
  • That is the same function as actual courts in common law systems such as America’s.
    — Aron Solomon, Fortune, 13 May 2021
  • The states have a preexisting duty back to common law before there was a republic.
    — Tax Notes Staff, Forbes, 27 Apr. 2021
  • The trial of Tong Ying-kit began on Wednesday without a jury, in a marked departure from the city's common law traditions.
    — Jessie Yeung, CNN, 23 June 2021
  • As their cases go to trial, the courts will be closely watched for signs of how the law may erode the city’s much vaunted British common law traditions of fairness and independence.
    — New York Times, 27 July 2021

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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