CO.MMODI'S 



COMMON LAW 



4 OllllUOdllS, LUCIUS AURELIUS, a Roman 



emperor, horn .-it l.anuvium in 161 A.I>., wan the son 

 of the great Marcus AureliiiM and his profligate 

 Mifi-. tin- younger Faustina. He was carefully 

 educated under hi* father's care, but lived t> !- 

 come one of tin- most worthless mid Moody wretches 

 tli.it ever disgraced a throne. At his father's death 

 in tin- spring of I so, he was successfully Bghtblg 

 tin 1 Marcomaimi and other tril>e8 on the upper 

 Daiiul>e, hut he at once concluded a treaty with 

 the barliarians, and hastened to Rome to enjoy the 

 pleasures of power. After the discovery of his 

 si-tci l.ucilla's plot against his life in 183, he gave 

 mirontrolled vent to the senseless savagery of his 

 nature. Nearly all who, by virtue, ability, and 

 learning, had risen to honour during his father's 

 lifetime, were sacrificed to appease his savage jeal- 

 ou-y of the good and the great. Proud of his own 

 physical strength, he demeaned himself by exhibit- 

 ing it in gladiatorial combats, and besides used, in 

 public, to sing, dance, play, and act the buffoon. 

 Though a glutton and a shameless debauchee, who 

 wallowed in the most sensual abominations, he yet 

 demanded to be worshipped as a god, and assumed 

 t he title of Hercules Romanus. Many unsuccessful 

 plot* were devised against the life or this mingled 

 monster and madman, until at length his mistress, 

 Marcia, finding her own name marked down in his 

 tablets for death, in concert with two confederates, 

 tried first to poison him, then caused him to be 

 strangled by Narcissus, a famous athlete, on the 

 31st of December J92. 



Common Bench* See BENCH, and COMMON 

 LAW. 



Commoner, one under the rank of nobility ; 

 also a member of the House of Commons. For the 

 Commoners at Oxford, a class of students eating 

 at the common table, see OXFORD. 



Common Forms are the ordinary clauses 

 which are of frequent occurrence in identical 

 terms in writs and deeds. 



Common Good. See BOROUGH. 



Common Law. in England, is the ancient 

 customary law of the land. Before the Norman 

 Conquest, the rights of an Englishman were deter- 

 mined mainly by the customs of the manor, borough, 

 or shire in which he lived. After the Conquest, 

 the king's judges began to go their circuits in every 

 part of the country, doing justice according to the 

 custom of the realm or the common law. In some 

 points they kept to the ancient local customs, in 

 others again they introduced new rules. Primo- 

 geniture, e.g., is a rule introduced by the influence 

 of the judges ; the ancient English rule of equal 

 division survives only as the 'custom of Kent' 

 under the name of Gavelkind (q^.v.). The custom 

 of certain ancient boroughs, which gave the land 

 to the youngest son, survives under the name of 

 Borough English (q.v. ). The custom of a place, 

 or of a body of persons, is allowed to supplement 

 or modify the common law if it has been oiraerved 

 from a time ' whereof the memory of man runneth 

 not to the contrary. ' Legal memory does not go 

 back beyond the first year of the reign of Richard 

 I.. l>ut evidence may be given to impugn the ' im- 

 memorial ' character of a local custom by showing 

 tli.-n it had its origin later than that year. 



Even in making new rules, the 'judges never 

 ;i -Mimed to legislate; they professed to expound 

 the good customs of the realm, and in applying 

 the rules of common law, each generation of judges 

 was guided by the decisions of its predecessors. 

 Decisions followed in a series of subsequent cases 

 acquired special authority, and were quoted as 

 leading cases. The law fixed by custom and by 

 judicial decision could only be set aside or amended 

 by an act of parliament. But without setting aside 

 129 



the law, court* of equity, and especially the Court 

 of Chancery (q.v.), framed rules of their own, which 

 enabled them to prevent the stricter rule* of com 

 mon law from In-ing used in defence of injuHtice. 

 I5y the Judicature Acts (q.v.), court- of common 

 law and equity were made parts of one supreme 

 court ; the two systems are administered concur- 

 rently ; where there w any conflict between equity 

 and common law, the rules of equity prevail. See 

 EQUITY. 



English settlers going to an uncivilised country 

 take with them ' OH much of the common law 

 as the nature of things will bear.' In Canada, 

 Australia, &c., and in the United States, the his- 

 torical basis of the law is the same as in England. 

 In Scotland, and in some other countries, the term 

 common law is used in a sense analogous to its 

 English meaning. 



THE COURTS OF COMMON LAW. The superior 

 courts of Common Law in England had their 

 origin in the Curia Regis of the early Norman 

 kings, the chief officers of which were the Chief- 

 iusticiar, the Chancellor, and the king's justices. 

 The justices sat in the King's Bench to supervise 

 the proceedings of inferior courts and corporations, 

 and to deal with criminal matters directly con- 

 cerning the crown. In the Common Bench or 

 Common Pleas they held pleas between subject 

 and subject. In the Exchequer they sat, as Barons 

 of the Exchequer, to decide revenue cases. At 

 first all these courts followed the king, to the great 

 inconvenience of suitors. The Common Pleas were 

 fixed at Westminster by Magna Charta ; and in 

 course of time the three superior courts of Common 

 Law were all established on one side of West- 

 minster Hall, each court having its own chief and 

 four (afterwards five) puisne or junior judges, who 

 were called justices in the King's Bench and Com- 

 mon Pleas, and Barons in the Exchequer. On the 

 passing of the Judicature Acts (1873-76), the three 

 courts became divisions of the High Court of 

 Justice. The offices of Chief-justice of the Common 

 Pleas and Chief-baron of the Exchequer are now 

 abolished, and the three divisions are consolidated 

 in the Queen's Bench Division. The Lord Chief- 

 justice of England is the presiding judge ; he is 

 appointed by the crown on the advice of the prime- 

 minister, and his salary is 8000. There are four- 

 teen puisne justices, appointed by the crown on the 

 advice of the Lord Chancellor, each of whom has 

 a salary of 5000. The sittings of the Division are 

 held at the Royal Courts in London ; the judges 

 also try cases on their circuits and at the 

 Central Criminal Court. The jurisdiction of the 

 Division includes all special authorities formerly 

 belonging to any of the old Common Law Courts. 

 It takes, e.g., appeals from Revising Barristers 

 (q.v.) which formerly went to the Common Pleas, 

 and revenue cases which belonged to the Exchequer. 

 Appeals from any of the old Common Law Courts 

 went to the judges of the other two courts, sitting 

 in the Exchequer Chamber, and from them to the 

 House of Lords. Appeals from the Queen's Bench 

 Division now go to the Court of Appeal, and thence 

 to the House of Lords. 



Besides the superior courts, there are many 

 inferior courts which exercise a limited common- 

 law jurisdiction. Each manor has its own courts, 

 but except in regard to Copyholds (q.v.)., manorial 

 jurisdiction has been superseded by local courts of 

 modern origin. The same remark applies to the 

 Hundred Court and the undent County Court, 

 The Court of Common Pleas in Lancaster and the 

 Court of Pleas in Durham, now form part of the 

 High Court. The modern County Court ( which 

 ought more properly to be called a district court) 

 has a common -law jurisdiction; and several statutes 

 contain provisions for remitting the less important 



