Editing Common law (section)

=== Medieval English common law ===
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 094 - Westminster Hall edited.jpg|thumb|A view of [[Westminster Hall]] in the [[Palace of Westminster]], [[London]], early 19th century]]

In 1154, [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] became the first [[Plantagenet]] king. Among many achievements, Henry institutionalized common law by creating a unified system of law "common" to the country through incorporating and elevating local custom to the national, ending local control and peculiarities, eliminating arbitrary remedies and reinstating a [[jury]] system—citizens sworn on oath to investigate reliable criminal accusations and civil claims. The jury reached its [[verdict]] through evaluating common [[Traditional knowledge|local knowledge]], not necessarily through the presentation of [[evidence (law)|evidence]], a distinguishing factor from today's civil and criminal court systems.

At the time, royal government centered on the ''[[Curia regis|Curia Regis]]'' (king's court), the body of aristocrats and prelates who assisted in the administration of the realm and the ancestor of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]], the [[Star Chamber]], and [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]]. Henry II developed the practice of sending judges (numbering around 20 to 30 in the 1180s) from his Curia Regis to hear the various disputes throughout the country, and return to the court thereafter.<ref name="Legal">{{Cite book|last=Baker|first=John|url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198812609.001.0001/oso-9780198812609|title=Introduction to English Legal History|date=2019-03-21|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-881260-9|edition=5|language=en|doi=10.1093/oso/9780198812609.001.0001}}</ref> The king's itinerant justices would generally receive a [[writ]] or commission under the great seal.<ref name="Legal" /> They would then resolve disputes on an [[ad hoc]] basis according to what they interpreted the customs to be. The king's judges would then return to London and often discuss their cases and the decisions they made with the other judges. These decisions would be recorded and filed. In time, a rule, known as ''stare decisis'' (also commonly known as precedent) developed, whereby a judge would be bound to follow the decision of an earlier judge; he was required to adopt the earlier judge's interpretation of the law and apply the same principles promulgated by that earlier judge if the two cases had similar facts to one another. Once judges began to regard each other's decisions to be binding precedent, the pre-Norman system of local customs and law varying in each locality was replaced by a system that was (at least in theory, though not always in practice) common throughout the whole country, hence the name "common law".

The king's object was to preserve public order, but providing law and order was also extremely profitable – cases on forest use as well as fines and forfeitures can generate "great treasure" for the government.<ref>''Croniques de London'' (Camden Soc., 1844), pp. 28–9.</ref><ref name="Legal" /> Eyres (a Norman French word for judicial circuit, originating from Latin ''iter'') are more than just courts; they would supervise local government, raise revenue, investigate crimes, and enforce feudal rights of the king.<ref name="Legal" /> There were complaints of the ''eyre'' of 1198 reducing the kingdom to poverty<ref>''Chronica Rogeri de Houedene'' (RS, 1871), IV, p. 62.</ref> and [[Cornish people|Cornishmen]] fleeing to escape the eyre of 1233.<ref>''Annales Monastici'' (RS, 1864–69), III, p. 135.</ref>

Henry II's creation of a powerful and unified court system, which curbed somewhat the power of [[canon law|canonical]] (church) courts, brought him (and England) into conflict with the church, most famously with [[Thomas Becket]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. The murder of the archbishop gave rise to a wave of popular outrage against the King. International pressure on Henry grew, and in May 1172 he negotiated a [[Compromise of Avranches|settlement with the papacy]] in which the King swore to go on crusade as well as effectively overturned the more controversial clauses of the [[Constitutions of Clarendon]]. Henry nevertheless continued to exert influence in any ecclesiastical case which interested him and royal power was exercised more subtly with considerable success.

The English [[Court of Common Pleas (England)|Court of Common Pleas]] was established after [[Magna Carta]] in 1215 to try lawsuits between commoners in which the monarch had no interest. Its judges sat in open court in the Great Hall of the king's [[Palace of Westminster#Westminster Hall|Palace of Westminster]], permanently except in the vacations between the four terms of the [[Legal year]].

Judge-made common law operated as the primary source of law for several hundred years, before [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] acquired legislative powers to create [[statutory law]]. In England, judges have devised a number of rules as to [[Mechanisms of the English common law|how to deal with precedent decisions]]. The early development of case-law in the thirteenth century has been traced to [[Henry de Bracton|Bracton]]'s ''On the Laws and Customs of England'' and led to the yearly compilations of court cases known as [[Year Books]], of which the first extant was published in 1268, the same year that Bracton died.<ref>[[Theodore Plucknett|T. F. T. Plucknett]], ''A Concise History of the Common Law, 5th edition, 1956, London and Boston, pp.260–261''</ref> The Year Books are known as the law reports of medieval England, and are a principal source for knowledge of the developing legal doctrines, concepts, and methods in the period from the 13th to the 16th centuries, when the common law developed into recognizable form.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.bu.edu/law/faculty-scholarship/legal-history-the-year-books/| title = BUSL, ''Legal History: The Year Books''}}</ref><ref>Cambridge History of English and American Literature ''The Year Books and their Value''[http://www.bartleby.com/218/1309.html]</ref>