Common law - Topics

When a case fits the letter of a rule but defeats its purpose which one wins? Can a court treat a voluntary guideline as the benchmark for negligence? How much of what we call law is judges filling gaps the legislature left? Common law vs code-based systems: why one leans on precedent and the other on statutes The reasonable person test: a common law fiction that decides negligence cases What it takes for a court to overrule its own earlier decision Judge-made law vs legislation: who really fills the gaps How stare decisis makes one ruling bind every court below it How did everyday custom turn into law that courts will actually enforce? What does it mean when a section is repealed but everyone still cites it? Reading a case report: which parts of a judgment are actually binding Precedent from another jurisdiction: persuasive but not binding How a common law rule gets abolished by statute but stays in the casebooks Why contracts drafted in common law jurisdictions run so much longer Why juries survived in common law countries and hardly anywhere else Equity and common law: two systems of relief that still run in parallel