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Common law definition

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What does Common law mean?

Common law is case law (decisions from courts and tribunals). Case law has also established and developed many principles of law and equity not covered by legislation. Case law is therefore a key source of primary law.

Common law - Legal Definition

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Which regime applies to enforce a foreign judgment?—checklist

Which regime applies to enforce a foreign judgment?—checklist This Checklist can be used when determining which enforcement regime applies when seeking to enforce a foreign judgment in England and Wales. It sets out various countries and lists which enforcement regime applies when seeking to enforce a judgment from a court of that jurisdiction. There are various enforcement regimes and those covered in this checklist are the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention, the Hague Judgments Convention, Regulation (EC) 44/2001, Brussels I, Regulation (EU) 1215/2012, Brussels I (recast), the Lugano Convention 2007, the Administration of Justice Act 1920 (AJA 1920), the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 (FJ(RE)A 1933) and the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 (CJJA 1982). Where no formal enforcement arrangement applies, the common law of England and Wales will be applied for the purposes of enforcement. Note that the application of a number of these enforcement regimes are impacted by the UK’s departure from the EU. For general guidance, see Practice Note: Brexit post implementation period—considerations for...

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Cross border considerations—checklist

Cross border considerations—checklist This Checklist aims to provide practitioners with a route map through the different cross border issues that require consideration when dealing with proceedings involving a cross border element such as a defendant domiciled outside the jurisdiction or a contractual agreement. In the form of a table it asks various questions and provides links to underlying content that will answer that question. The UK's departure from the EU has implications for practitioners dealing with cross border issues involving not only EU Member States but also contracting states of the Lugano Convention 2007 and potentially contracting states of the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements. For guidance, see: Cross border considerations (Brexit)—checklist. Applicable law—general Question Guidance—Practice Notes What is applicable law? Applicable law—a guide for dispute resolution practitioners Which applicable law regime applies? Applicable law—a guide for dispute resolution practitioners What is an applicable law clause? Applicable law clauses How do I determine the applicable law under Assimilated Regulation (EC) 593/2008 Rome I?(Contract claims only) UK Rome...

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Highways, street works and statutory undertakers

Highways, street works and statutory undertakers Street works at common law At common law it is a nuisance to interfere with the surface of a highway. When the nineteenth-century utility companies began work and used the highways as routes for their underground pipes and cables, many of them found that, without statutory authority and despite them being the most obvious routes, they were prevented by the courts from using the highways for their apparatus. The Sheffield Gas and Cambridge Gas cases illustrate the point. Street works—liability in negligence Even when authorised by statute to interfere with or use the highway for utility works and apparatus, the statutory undertakers and those with street works licences owe a duty of care to (other) highway users. There are often quite specific requirements in a street works licence about fencing off the excavation and about the managing of pedestrian and vehicular traffic past the works, but the common law requirements also apply. See, for example: • Holliday v National Telephone...

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Ownership of highway land

Ownership of highway land Some highway land is merely vested in the highway authority and other highway land belongs completely to the authority. Vested land The key to an understanding of the ownership of highway land lies in its history. As Sydney and Beatrice Webb wrote in The Story of the King's Highway in 1913: 'To the citizen of today, the King's Highway appears as an endless strip of land, with definite boundaries, permanently and exclusively appropriated to the purpose of passage, with a surface specially prepared for its peculiar function. To the citizen of the twelfth, the fifteenth, or even the eighteenth century, the King's Highway was a more abstract conception. It was not a strip of land, or any corporeal thing, but a legal and customary right” as the lawyers said, "a perpetual right of passage in the sovereign, for himself and his subjects over another's land". In one of our oldest law-books it is definitely laid down that "the King has nothing but the...

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Leases—tenant environmental covenants

Produced in partnership with ELM Law 1 Definitions Environment all or any of the following media, namely air (including the air within buildings and the air within other natural or man-made structures above or below ground), land (including buildings and any other structures or erections in, on or under it and any soil and anything below the surface of the land) and water (including surface water, coastal water and groundwater) and any living organisms and ecosystems supported by those media Environmental Law all applicable statutes, subordinate legislation, directives, regulations, common law, orders, judgments, instructions of any regulatory authority or court, codes of practice and guidance...

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Environmental clauses for a facility agreement

Produced in partnership with DLA Piper UK LLP [ These clauses are intended for insertion in a Facility Agreement relating to the operation of a business, which involves the occupation of use of properties. It accordingly assumes the definition of terms which would typically be included in such an agreement, such as ‘Agent’, ‘Business’, ‘Event of Default’, ‘Finance Party’, ‘Legal Due Diligence Report’, ‘Material Adverse Effect’, ‘Obligor’ and ‘Property’.] Brexit impact As of exit day (31 January 2020) the UK is no longer an EU Member State. However, in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK has entered an implementation period, during which it continues to be subject to EU law. This has an impact on this content. For further guidance, see Practice Note: Brexit—impact on environmental law and News Analysis: Brexit Bulletin—key updates, research tips and...

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Where a settlement agreement provides for the employer to make a contribution to the employee’s legal costs, payable direct to the employee’s law firm, can the law firm bring proceedings against the employer if it fails to pay?

Where a settlement agreement provides for the employer to make a contribution to the employee’s legal costs, payable direct to the employee’s law firm, can the law firm bring proceedings against the employer if it fails to pay? For information on: • the legal requirements that must be met for a settlement agreement to be binding and valid to settle statutory employment claims, see Practice Note: Settlement agreements in employment—legal requirements • the practical issues that typically arise in relation to a settlement agreement, see Practice Note: Settlement agreements in employment—practical and tax issues Contribution to legal costs A settlement agreement will typically provide for the employer to make a contribution to the employee’s legal costs. For general information on payment of legal fees incurred by an employee in relation to a settlement agreement generally, see the section of Practice Note: Settlement agreements in employment—practical and tax issues entitled ‘Payment for legal advice’. For a sample clause in the settlement agreement dealing with payment of legal fees, see Clause 13.2...

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Who is responsible for an occupier's liability claim when the accident occurred in premises subject to a lease? The tenant company had ceased trading before the accident and a new tenant company had not entered into a new lease agreement with the landlord.

Who is responsible for an occupier's liability claim when the accident occurred in premises subject to a lease? The tenant company had ceased trading before the accident and a new tenant company had not entered into a new lease agreement with the landlord. This Q&A considers who may qualify as an occupier under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 (OLA 1957). OLA 1957 contains no definition of an ‘occupier’. The issue of who is an occupier is dealt with under the common law. It is important to recognise that the key issue is of control over, rather than ownership of, the premises. An occupier is any legal entity with a sufficient degree of control over premises such that it can properly be considered to be an occupier (see Wheat v E Lacon). The key element is that the occupier has effective control. There is no requirement for the occupier to have a legal interest in the land. There can be multiple occupiers of premises at any given time. It has...

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Property weekly highlights—10 October 2024

This week's edition of Property weekly highlights includes: second reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill, the coming into force of provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 which amend the Building Safety Act 2022, biodiversity gain plan templates for phased developments and cases on constructive trusts in bankruptcy, landlords’ attempts to remove leases from restructuring plans and SDLT.

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Banking and Finance weekly highlights—3 October 2024

This week's edition of Banking and Finance weekly highlights includes: (1) Our-round up of key cases from July to September 2024; (2) the UK Government revokes the commencement of section 6 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023; and (3) the BoE, FCA and RFR Working Group issues statement on the end of LIBOR.

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