Editing Common law (section)

=== Influence of Roman law ===
The term "common law" is often used as a contrast to Roman-derived "civil law", and the fundamental processes and forms of reasoning in the two are quite different. Nonetheless, there has been considerable cross-fertilization of ideas, while the two traditions and sets of foundational principles remain distinct.

By the time of the rediscovery of the [[Roman law]] in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, the common law had already developed far enough to prevent a Roman law reception as it occurred on the continent.<ref>E.g., R. C. van Caenegem, ''The Birth of the English Common Law'' 89–92 (1988).</ref> However, the first common law scholars, most notably [[Ranulf de Glanvill|Glanvill]] and [[Henry de Bracton|Bracton]], as well as the early royal common law judges, had been well accustomed with Roman law. Often, they were clerics trained in the Roman canon law.<ref>E.g., [[Peter Birks]], Grant McLeod, ''Justinian's Institutes'' 7 (1987).</ref> One of the first and throughout its history one of the most significant treatises of the common law, Bracton's ''De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae'' (On the Laws and Customs of England), was heavily influenced by the division of the law in Justinian's ''[[Corpus Juris Civilis|Institutes]]''.<ref>E.g., George E. Woodbine (ed.), [[Samuel E. Thorne]] (transl.), ''Bracton on the Laws and Customs of England'', Vol. I (Introduction) 46 (1968); Carl Güterbock, ''Bracton and his Relation to the Roman Law'' 35–38 (1866).</ref> The impact of Roman law had decreased sharply after the age of Bracton, but the Roman divisions of actions into ''[[in rem]]'' (typically, actions against a ''thing'' or property for the purpose of gaining title to that property; must be filed in a court where the property is located) and ''[[in personam]]'' (typically, actions directed against a person; these can affect a person's rights and, since a person often owns things, his property too) used by Bracton had a lasting effect and laid the groundwork for a return of Roman law structural concepts in the 18th and 19th centuries. Signs of this can be found in Blackstone's ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'',<ref>Stephen P. Buhofer, ''Structuring the Law: The Common Law and the Roman Institutional System'', Swiss Review of International and European Law (SZIER/RSDIE) 5/2007, 24.</ref> and Roman law ideas regained importance with the revival of academic law schools in the 19th century.<ref>Peter Stein, ''Continental Influences on English Legal thought, 1600–1900'', ''in'' Peter Stein, ''The Character and Influence of the Roman Civil Law'' 223 ''et seq''. (1988).</ref> As a result, today, the main systematic divisions of the law into property, contract, and tort (and to some extent [[unjust enrichment]]) can be found in the civil law as well as in the common law.<ref>See generally Stephen P. Buhofer, ''Structuring the Law: The Common Law and the Roman Institutional System'', Swiss Review of International and European Law (SZIER/RSDIE) 5/2007.</ref>