http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_legal_systems
American common law
The United States and most Commonwealth countries are heirs to the common law legal tradition of English law.[15] Certain practices traditionally allowed under English common law were expressly outlawed by the Constitution, such as bills of attainder[16] and general search warrants.[17]
As common law courts, U.S. courts have inherited the principle of stare decisis.[18] American judges, like common law judges elsewhere, not only apply the law, they also make the law, to the extent that their decisions in the cases before them become precedent for decisions in future cases.[19]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_States#American_common_law
What a tool.