Common Law / Law of the Land
idea · 1 work · 4 mentions · 16 anchored passages
common law · the common law · the law of the land · common right · law of the land · the Law of the Land · the good laws
spoken of as
1 expressioncommon law and "the law of the land"1 mention
An Essay on the Trial by Jury (English)
“Common right” was the common law.
in the texts
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
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.
” 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.
The purport of the oath is, that the king swears to maintain the law of the land—that is, the common law.