Common Law / Law of the Land · Atlas

spoken of as

1 expression

common law and "the law of the land"1 mention

That the terms “Law” and “Right,” as used in this statute, mean the common law, is shown by the preamble, which declares the motive of the statute to be that “the Law of the Land, (the common law,) which we (the king) by our oath are bound to maintain,” may be the better kept, &c.

ch. 23 ¶

in the texts

An Essay on the Trial by Jury19th Century · English

The body of custom and principle, distinct from royal statute, that juries enforced and thereby helped establish.

It is evident that it was in this way, by the free and concurrent judgments of juries, approving and enforcing certain laws and rules of conduct, corresponding to their notions of right and justice, that the laws and customs, which, for the most part, made up the common law, and were called, at that day, “the good laws, and good customs,” and “the law of the land,” were established.

ch. 8 ¶

” and the further fact that this “law of the land” was held so sacred that even the king could not lawfully infringe or alter it, but was required to swear to maintain it, are beautiful and impressive illustrations of the truth that men’s minds, even in the comparative infancy of other knowledge, have clear and coincident ideas of the elementary principles, and the paramount obligation, of justice.

ch. 8 ¶

For the present it is sufficient to show, as has been already sufficiently done, that from the Saxon times until at least as lately as 1616, the coronation oath has been, in substance, to maintain the law of the land, or the common law, meaning thereby the ancient Saxon customs, as embodied in the laws of Alfred, of Edward the Confessor, and finally in Magna Carta.

ch. 12 ¶