The system of American law came from English common law, which originated from a traditional medieval method of settling disputes. From our article, you can learn what law is, where it came from, and what are the roots of the US legal system.

The Definition of Law

To find out what are the origins of US law, we first need to define what law is. Let’s look into a dictionary — to be exact, the Black’s law dictionary used by many students and professionals in the legal sphere. It is widely accepted as the most preferred source for finding exact meanings of law-related terms. So, how exactly does this dictionary define the word “law”? It says that a law is something that is established, ordained, or laid down.

But this book, no matter how useful it is, isn’t a law itself. The main role in making legal definitions belongs to the US Supreme Court. According to it, a law is a body of rules of action or conduct with binding legal force that is prescribed by the controlling authority.

This definition is complete and exhaustive, but it’s not the only one. There are lots of other great definitions of this term. In a nutshell, a law is a rule that is compulsory for everyone to follow so that society can function properly. If you break that rule, you will be punished by the government system.

Laws are produced by a country’s authorities, who try to reflect the needs of ordinary people. For example, murders and robberies are forbidden by the law because people want to be protected from such things. Most laws correspond with the morals of society — forbidden actions are usually those that are considered bad, immoral, and harmful by the majority of people.

How Did the US Laws Appear?

What are the origins of the US legislative system? As you can expect, it came from England. Because the first settlers were British, the laws that they had also were of British origin. Having adopted the familiar rules in their new place of life, they laid the foundation of the future American laws.

And which legislative system was in England during that period? It was called the English common law. This law system is many centuries old. The major part of it appeared between the beginning of the 11th century when the Normans conquered the British Isles and the 17th one when the first Englishmen started to settle in North America.

What is the English Common Law?

The English common law is a system of rules originally meant to solve disputes. Every ancient tribe that lived in the British Isles had its own traditions. But when they united into a more organized society, they regulated them and put them in order. Many centuries later, those rules have become the source of US laws.

So, what were those rules about? According to them, disputes had to be solved case by case. The person who made the decision studied the same cases that were solved earlier and used them to make the verdict. As time went on, this system expanded and improved, finally giving birth to the legislative system of the United States.