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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide
No, you are confusing common law (local customs or citizenry-made law) with jurisprudence. Jurisprudence is direction for future courts built up from prior decisions based on an amalgamation of common law and statute law and stare decisis. Jurisprudence is often called "case law" or "judge-made law." But jurisprudence is not law, just a collection of prior judgements that indicate how a case is going to be handled.

You can talk about jurisprudence all you want but that doesn't change what common law is. It is law which has no statutory basis. That is the only definition of the term. It's based on community standards and precedent, nothing else. There is no "amalgamation" include statutes. By its very defintion, when a statute is binding on a case then that is no longer common law. That's statutory law. Common law is distinct and has nothing to do with anything legislative.

As an aside I will give you one more argument. The U.S. Constitution forbids ex post facto (after the fact) laws. But every judgement comes after the facts being judged. So if a judgement were law, then every judgement is unconstitutionally ex post facto. But there is nothing in the Constitution about courts making law at all.

Well, that's a nice try at spin but it has nothing do with what an ex post facto law really is nor what a court judgment really is. The Constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws found in Article 1, Section 9 is a limitation on the power of Congress only.

89 posted on 03/26/2005 4:13:15 PM PST by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham

Courts don't make the common law. The people do. And when the people do, they are acting as a legislature. Courts administer the already pre-existing common law creating precedents. Precedents makes jurisprudence (from both common and statute law.)


91 posted on 03/26/2005 4:30:28 PM PST by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth...)
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To: Crackingham
The Constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws found in Article 1, Section 9 is a limitation on the power of Congress only.

Prohibiting courts from making ex post facto laws would be redundant because courts aren't authorized to make any laws.
92 posted on 03/26/2005 4:33:51 PM PST by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth...)
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